THE DEEP SEA 



light. In some places where there is much of this 

 luminescence, it may be that the scene is like the 

 ill-lighted suburbs of a town on a very dark night, 

 or like a moorland with no light save from the stars. 



Calm and Silence. Another physical feature is the 

 pervading calm, for the severest storms are shallow 

 in their grip, and though the cold polar water is ever 

 creeping along the bottom towards the equator, this 

 is a relatively slow movement. Only in a few places 

 is there evidence of what may be called a current. 

 If there were rapid movement the deep ooze which 

 covers vast areas of the sea-floor would be raised 

 in whirling clouds. Thus we must think of the 

 deep sea as extraordinarily still and quiet, for there 

 can be no noise to break the abiding silence of the 

 abysses. 



Monotony. There is some variety in the composi- 

 tion of the sea-floor, for the remains of lime-shelled 

 creatures are abundant in some places and of flint- 

 shelled creatures in others, and the debris called 

 " red clay " is found in the deepest parts of all. 

 But otherwise monotony prevails. There is no 

 scenery, except that here and there a ridge stretches 

 like a watershed, or a volcanic cone rises abruptly 

 to the surface, or a great depression leads into one 

 of the " deeps." Otherwise there are great stretches 

 of undulating plain, like very flat sand-dunes, or 

 like a great desert. There is no sound and echo, 

 no day and night, no summer and winter in the 

 monotonous Deep Sea. It is all silence, all night, 

 all winter. Apart from the animals altogether, 

 what a remarkable picture rises in the mind a 



211 



