THE DEEP SEA ANIMALS 19I 



these intermediates seem to be the numerous forms of radio- 

 larians and related types which, judging from the long stalks 

 of the attached animals, must in some places form a thin mist 

 for some distance above the sea floor. 



Deep sea animals are much more common near land off pre- 

 cipitous coasts than at the same depths further out, in corre- 

 spondence with the greater density of life in the layers above, 

 and also under cold surface water. They are, after all, only 

 httoral types with sufficiently adaptable natures to enable them 

 to descend to the greatest depths, and fundamentally they differ 

 very much less from the shore t}'pes than would be supposed. 

 In the tropics the difference between the littoral and the abys- 

 sal animals is great and the change from one sort to the other 

 rather abrupt, but in the cold regions many of the deep sea 

 types come up into shallow water. 



The reason why the deep sea animals are most abundant 

 near the land and gradually decrease in abundance and in size 

 with increasing distance from the shores is that nutritive ma- 

 terial brought to the sea by rivers and washed from the land 

 by rain upon which the plants subsist is most abundant here. 

 On very precipitous coasts the detritus from the sea-weeds falls 

 into deep water and adds to the supply of food which elsewhere 

 is derived only from the remains of oceanic organisms. 



On September ist, 1924, there was announced from Tokyo 

 in press despatches the chscovery of the ocean's deepest spot. 

 This new deep, which like all the other places at which ex- 

 tremes of depth are found, is in the Pacific Ocean and near 

 the land, lies about 145 miles southeast of Tokyo; here the 

 Japanese surveying steamer "Manshu" found 6.18 miles of 

 water — 32,636 feet or 5,439 fathoms. 



This depth exceeds the height of Mt. Everest in the Hima- 

 layas by 3,634 feet. If we add to this depth the height of Mt. 

 Everest, 29,002 feet, we get the greatest variation in the level 

 of the earth's crust, which is 61,638 feet, or 11. 7 miles. 



Before the announcement of the discovery by the^Manshu" 

 the ocean's greatest depth was thought to be 40 miles east of 



