39.3 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



of the position that great compression in the sea prevents putre- 

 faction, they referred to the fact well known to the fishermen of 

 Nantucket and New Bedford, viz., that when a whale that they 

 have killed sinks in shallow water, he, as the process of decay 

 commences, is seen to swell and rise ; but when he sinks in deep 

 water, the pressure is such as to prevent the formation of the dis- 

 tending gases, and he never does rise. Some of these specimens 

 have come from depths where the pressure is equal to that of 400 

 or 500 atmospheres. Specimens have been obtained by Lieuten- 

 ant Brooke, in the Pacific, with " fleshy parts" among them, at the 

 depth of 3300 fathoms, and where the pressure is nearly 700 atmos- 

 pheres. We have brought up fleshy matter from the deep sea as 

 deep down as we have gone ; and we may infer that if we were 

 to go to 4000 fathoms, we should still find pulpy matter among 

 the dead organisms there. At that depth, or a little over, com- 

 mon air, according to " Mariotte's ?a?^," would be heavier than 

 water, and an air bubble down there, if one may imagine such a 

 thing, would be heavy enough to sink. Under such conditions, 

 and with the antiseptic agencies of the sea, the fleshy matter of 

 these infusoria might be preserved at the bottom of the deep sea 

 for a great length of time. 



612. Moreover (§ 604), the anti-biotics pointed to the first chap- 

 Arguments from the ^^^ of Genesis to show that light and heat were or- 

 ^'^'^- dained before the waters were commanded to bring 

 forth. Hence they maintained that light and heat are necessary 

 to marine life. In the depth of the sea there is neither light nor 

 heat, wherefore they brought in circumstantial evidence from the 

 Bible to sustain them in their view. 



613. This was an exceedingly interesting question, and we 

 A plan for solving could suggcst but ouc way of deciding it, which 

 the question. ^^^g ^-^{s : Many of these little organisms of the sea 

 are in the shape of plano-convex discs ; all such, when alive, live 

 with the convex side up, the flat side down ; but when placed 

 dead in the water and allowed freely to sink, the force of gravity 

 alwaj'S, and for obvious reasons, causes all such forms to sink 

 with the convex side down. Brooke's lead will bring up these 

 shells exactly as they lie on the bottom, and so he proposed to 

 observe with regard to their manner of lying. Of course, if they 

 lived at the bottom, they would die as they lived, and lie as they 



