Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/353

Rh force, and no more; that this force is not very great; and, unless it were sufficient to overcome the pressure of deep-sea water, their separation could not go on, and that, consequently, there is a certain depth in the sea beyond which animal decomposition or vegetable decay cannot take place. In support of this view, they referred to the well-known effects of pressure in arresting or modifying the energies displayed by certain chemical affinities; and in proof of the position that great compression in the sea prevents putrefaction, they referred to the fact well-known to the fishermen of Nantucket and New Bradford, viz., that when a whale that they have killed sinks in shallow water, he, as the process of decay commences, is seen to swell and rise; but when he sinks in deep water, the pressure is such as to prevent the formation of the distending gases, and he never does rise. Some of these specimens have come from depths where the pressure is equal to that of 400 or 500 atmospheres. Specimens have been obtained by Lieutenant Brooke, in the Pacific, with "fleshy parts" among them, at the depth of 3300 fathoms, and where the pressure is nearly 700 atmospheres. We have brought up fleshy matter from the deep sea as deep down as we have gone; and we may infer that if we were to go to 4000 fathoms, we should still find pulpy matter among the dead organisms there. At that depth, or a little over, common air, according to "Mariotte's law" would be heavier than water, and an air-bubble down there, if any one may imagine such a thing, would be heavy enough to sink. Under such conditions, and with the antiseptic agencies of the sea, the fleshy matter of these infusoria might be preserved at the bottom of the deep sea for a great length of time.

612. Arguments from the Bible.—Moreover (§ 604), the anti-biotics pointed to the first chapter of Genesis to show that light and heat were ordained before the waters were commanded to bring forth. Hence they maintained that light and heat are necessary to marine life. In the depth of the sea there is neither light nor heat, wherefore they brought in circumstantial evidence from the Bible to sustain them in their view.

613. A plan for solving the question.—This was an exceedingly interesting question, and we could suggest but one way of deciding it, which was this: Many of these little organisms of the sea are in the shape of plano-convex discs; all such, when alive, live with the convex side up, the flat side down;