THE GREAT DEEPS 115 



on the lime-ooze than on the " red-clay" mud- 

 ooze ; and we do not know much about the 

 thinly peopled miles of water between the limit 

 of the light, say half a mile at the most, and 

 the floor itself. But the big fact is that wher- 

 ever the long arm of the dredge has reached 

 down it has brought up living creatures. It is 

 astounding to read that on the " Michael Sars" 

 exploration, the late Sir John Murray and Dr. 

 Johan Hjort worked an otter-trawl with a 

 spread of 50 feet at a depth of 2820 fathoms, 

 which is over 3 miles ! 



NO PLANTS IN THE DEEP SEA 



There are, of course, no plants in the great 

 depths, except the resting-stages of a few Algae 

 that have sunk down from the surface. We 

 say, " of course," because all ordinary plants, 

 possessing chlorophyll (disguised by other 

 colours in many seaweeds), require light if they 

 are to live. This raises an interesting question, 

 for if there are no plants it seems at first sight 

 as if all the abyssal animals must be eating one 

 another, which is absurd, as Euclid used to say. 

 No doubt the deep-sea fish eats the deep-sea 

 crustacean, and the deep-sea crustacean the 



