ANIMAL LIFE OF THE DEEP SEA BOTTOM 



153 



to fish, and our direct knowledge 

 of the animals there derives mainly 

 from the few which came up with 

 gear that was torn by stones and 

 rocks. Beyond that, when there 

 are solid objects on the bottom 

 there will always be some seden- 

 tary species attached to them. The 

 objects may be natural things like 

 stones (see Fig. p. 178) or snail- 

 shells and stalks of glass-sponges 

 (Fig. p. 131), or things resulting 

 from human activity like pieces 

 of coal and cinders, which were 

 found in the trawls fairly often. 

 Even a whole bottle, fished up 

 from 3,620 metres, had a couple 

 of sea-anemones attached to it. 

 The finding of this bottle, an old 

 hand-blown type, and of the many 

 cinders which we fished up from 

 the deep sea, tells its own tale of 

 man's conquest of the oceans. 

 They gave rise to much specula- 

 tion as to what geologists a thou- 

 sand years hence would think if 

 they were to find one of the Ga- 

 lathea's — fortunately few — lost 

 trawl buckets in this cinders-strewn 

 layer, which may soon cease to be 

 added to in the age of oil-driven, 

 and in time atomic-driven, ships. . . 

 Among the small attempts to 

 tackle old problems with new 

 methods must be mentioned in this 

 connection the apparatus to which 



we gave the high-sounding name of "shooting-star rake". Shooting stars, 

 of couree, are meteors which burn out in the earth's atmosphere, the ashes 

 and burnt-out particles from them faUing on the earth — and hence on to 

 the surface of the sea. These meteors may consist of various rocks or of 



'Shooting-star rake', set with many small magnets. 



% 





Alagnetic particles obtained by the magnets. 

 About three times natural size. South Atlantic, 

 5,160 metres. 



