NUMBER XXXIII 

 THE DEEP SEA 



are six great haunts of life the shore, 

 the open sea, the deep sea, the fresh waters, 

 the dry land, and the air. Every one has seen more 

 or less of the other haunts of life, but no one has had 

 any vision of the Deep Sea the abyssal region 

 beyond the light limit and the plant limit. Many 

 have been within a stone's throw, or stone's drop 

 rather, of it ; a few have had the rare experience of 

 dredging from its distant floor ; many have exam- 

 ined Deep-Sea animals in museums ; but no one 

 has ever seen its secrets in their natural setting, and, 

 we suppose, no one ever will. 



Depth. The average depth of the sea is about, 

 2J miles, and over 80 per cent, of the sea -floor lies 

 at a depth of over a thousand fathoms. Thus the 

 greater part of the Deep Sea is very deep. It is, 

 indeed, a remarkable fact that the great Deep Sea 

 plain, deeper than 1,700 fathoms, extends over about 

 100 millions of square miles, which is more than a 

 half of the entire surface of the earth. 



Here and there in the Deep Sea there are tremend- 

 ous depths, technically called " deeps," of over 3,000 

 fathoms ; and eight soundings of over 5,000 fathoms 



207 



