Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/356

330 suggests many beautiful fancies, some touching thoughts, and a few useful ideas; and among these last are found reasons for the conjecture that the gutta percha or other insulating material in which the conducting wires of the sub-Atlantic telegraph and other deep-sea lines are incased, becomes, when lodged beyond a certain depth, impervious to the powers of decay; that, with the weight of the sea upon them, the destructive agents which are so busy upon organic matter in the air and near the surface cannot find room for play. Curious that destruction and decay should be imprisoned and rendered inoperative at the bottom of the great deep!

616. Specimens of the three oceans all tell the same story.—Specimens of the "ooze and bottom of the sea" have also been obtained by the ingenuity of Brooke from the depth of 2700 fathoms in the North Pacific, and examined by Professor Bailey. We have now had specimens from the bottom of "blue water" in the narrow Coral Sea, the broad Pacific, and the long Atlantic, and they all tell the same story, namely, that the bed of the ocean is a vast cemetery. The ocean's bed has been found everywhere, wherever Brooke's sounding-rod has touched, to be soft, consisting almost entirely of the remains of infusoria. The Gulf Stream has literally strewed the bottom of the Atlantic with these microscopic shells; for the Coast Survey has caught up the same infusoria in the Gulf of Mexico and at the bottom of the Gulf Stream off the shores of the