In Ocean Depths 



All this means progress. And though, no 

 doubt, fifty or a hundred years hence, that which 

 we now know will be looked upon as the barest 

 A B C of the science, still our knowledge is 

 growing year by year. The Under- Ocean is no 

 longer a vague fairy-land of possible mermaids, 

 or a waste region of death. 



A region of death in one sense it is and must 

 be. All living creatures that die in the sea, 

 unless devoured by other creatures, sink to the 

 bottom, there to find a tomb. Covered at first 

 by a vast winding-sheet of water, they may be 

 slowly buried under the shifting mud and sand. 

 But in this sense the whole Crust of Earth may 

 be called one vast sepulchre, wherein all animals 

 that die are entombed. 



People are slow to realise how modern is our 

 knowledge of ocean -depths. About three hun- 

 dred years ago a famous navigator made the first 

 sounding which went below two hundred fathoms 

 that is, about one hundred feet deeper than the 

 height of Beachy Head from the shore. He at 

 once decided that, by a happy chance, he had 

 alighted upon the uttermost depth in the ocean. 



To him it was an awe-inspiring profundity. 

 Yet, when viewed beside such abysses as have 

 been recently discovered, depths of five and six 



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