FRONTIERS IN OCEANIC RESEARCH 37 



( )f course, the surface ship is going up and down, and you don't know 

 what the sphere is doing down below. It is a more dangerous occupa- 

 tion than the bathyscaph. 



Mr. King. You explained the bathyscaph was essentially an ele- 

 vator, and there was little or no mobility on the bottom, I think that 

 was explained the last time you testified. 



Dr. Rechnitzer. Yes. 



Mr. King. Will the day come when we can design a craft that will 

 actually travel around on the bottom as an automobile ? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. Well 



Mr. King. Not as fast, but with reasonable mobility? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. It is necessary to get up a few feet off the bottom, 

 it is rather soft mud, by the way, and it would be difficult, it would be 

 sinking in all the time! Yes, it will come in time. The bathyscaph, 

 as you know, was built on a shoestring. The objective was not so 

 much to make horizontal motions, as to go up and down. 



We do have motors on it. we can drive along the bottom using the 

 motors, or drift with the current, either one at our disposal. But this 

 is a limited horizontal mobility. 



Mr. King. That will be achieved in due time, where we can explore 

 the bottom effectively and stay down much longer. You were down 

 20 minutes, I believe ? 



Lieutenant Walsh. Some 9 hours total, 20 minutes on the bottom. 



Mr. King. About 5 down and ?A/ 2 up ? 



Lieutenant Walsh. Right. 



Mr. King. Will the day come when we can spend many hours on 

 the bottom? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. We hope. 



Lieutenant Walsh. Not only that, but making each hour count more 

 than it can now, by proper instrumentation. 



Dr. Rechnitzer. It is all feasible. It is a matter of time and fund- 

 ing, and moving in that direction. 



Mr. King. You can work out prosthetic devices, I think you call 

 them, to reach out and grab things for samples. You had very few 

 at this time, if any ; is that correct ? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. That is right. 



Mr. King. But you will work that out. 



What did the fish eat down there — use the droppings from above, is 

 that their diet ? 



Lieutenant Walsh. Apparently, in that there were none of the 

 usual low forms of life apparent on the bottom, such as worms or 

 evidence of worms, worm holes. Any kind of animals apparently 

 must feed on material that drops from the higher regions of the 

 water. 



Mr. King. And the oxygen you suggested would be brought there 

 cither by currents or flora of some sort ? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. It has to be brought by the currents. The flora, 

 of course, are restricted to the upper few hundred feet of the ocean. 



Mr. King. Light disappears at about 1,000 feet, is that right? 



Dr. Rechnitzer. That is right- 

 Mr. King. So you have no photosynthesis, you have no self- 

 generating light, so to speak ? 



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