THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



Yet at this moment it is as though dazzling 

 fireworks were discharged over this dehcate il- 

 lumination. Blue, red and white fire balls 

 stream forth from above in an entrancing play 

 of colors. A host of shining cuttle-fishes have 

 shot into view and are unfolding their arms and 

 bodies and slowly settling down. Each one of 

 these cuttle fish carries twenty-four colored light 

 balls. Around each one of their great eyes 

 hangs a string of pearls, of which the largest 

 is of ultra-marine blue while the others shine 

 like opals. Three giant chains encircle the body 

 in which dazzling white and mother-of-pearl 

 rings alternate with variegated ruby-red and 

 sky-blue. The two main tentacles in the midst 

 of the whole mass of tentacles move in an end- 

 less whirl like wondrously colored precious 

 stones, or the rain of color from the crown of 

 a bursting sky-rocket. 



We are not simply in the deepest ocean. We 

 are in by far the greatest depth of the earth 

 that man with all his tools has ever directly 

 reached. Above this depth extends the beach 

 line where we bathe, higher than the highest ice 

 tipped mountain. On the plateau beyond the 

 beach stand our cities. From that height we 

 have drilled holes in the plateau. The deepest 

 goes down six thousand feet into the stone, but 

 that is still less than a quarter as deep as this ice 

 black watery cellar. Yet animal life is still found 

 SI 



