AT THE END OF THE SPECTRUM I75 



But on our return to the deck, just before the door had 

 been removed, the last telephone message was that the 

 lobster was more active than when sent down. My annoy- 

 ance was soon overcome by astonishment at this unex- 

 pected viability, the sustaining of at least eight tons of 

 pressure without injury. The reprieved crustacean was 

 carefully removed and was soon living happily in an 

 aquarium. 



As I looked out over the tossing ocean and at the sinking 

 sun, and realized what I had been permitted to see, almost 

 half a mile below the surface, I knew that I should never 

 again look upon the stars without remembering their ac- 

 tive, living counterparts swimming about in that terrific 

 pressure. It leaves the mind in a maze of wonder — to think 

 of having seen these hidden multitudes, many most deli- 

 cate and fragile, moving swiftly on their missions in life 

 — avoiding their enemies, searching for food and finding 

 mates; and all amid this black, ice-cold water with nearly 

 a half-ton of weight crushing down upon every square 

 inch. The recital of such facts as the pressure of fourteen 

 tons of water on the surface of the window out of which 

 I had been looking, or that the whole bathysphere was 

 resisting a weight of over five thousand tons — these prob- 

 ably mean much to anyone who must think only with his 

 imagination of this strange world. When once it has been 

 seen, it will remain forever the most vivid memory in life, 

 solely because of its cosmic chill and isolation, the eternal 

 and absolute darkness and the indescribable beauty of its 

 inhabitants. 



