The Mighty Deep 



mid-ocean, may be actually sailing or steaming 

 downhill, actually descending a vast gentle 

 watery slope. 



Another question as to Ocean's level has much 

 exercised the minds of men. 



Throuo^hout the world, remains of sea-creatures 

 in countless multitudes are found embedded in 

 the substance of water-built rocks : sometimes 

 the very rocks being made up of them. This, 

 not only on the tops of lesser hills, but at the 

 summits of mountains eight thousand feet high, 

 twelve thousand feet high, sixteen or eighteen 

 thousand feet high. 



Very ancient remains they often are, certainly 

 many tens of thousands of years old. But what- 

 ever their age may be, they echo and add to the 

 story which is told by the rocks themselves. 



From the rocks we learn that, once upon a 

 time, long ago, they were put together, scrap by 

 scrap, under water, not upon dry land. And from 

 the fossil remains in those rocks we learn with 

 equal certainty that, once upon a time, they lay 

 under ocean-waters. 



Fossil remains, buried in rocks, are of many 

 kinds. 



Not only relics of animals, or of parts of 

 animals, such as teeth and bones and shells. 



128 



