12 THE OCEAN 



The Bermudas and the Bahamas are of this 

 character. 



We must not think of the submarine land- 

 scape as hard, firm land or rocks, for in most 

 places it is covered by a deposit of ooze many 

 feet in depth. This ooze is soft, impalpably 

 fine and slimy and is composed of the minute 

 skeletons of countless billions of tiny marine 

 animals. In places where the slopes are steep 

 or the currents run swiftly, the bottom may be 

 hard, bare rock; at other places of less depth 

 it may be sand or gravel, while large portions 

 of the ocean bed are covered with a deposit 

 ofjbroken shells, coral, sand, or mud. 



Near the shores and in shallow water the 

 bottom may be fairly well lighted by the sun's 

 rays that penetrate the water, but in the great 

 depths no light ever reaches the bottom and 

 thousands of fathoms beneath the surface lies 

 a world of eternal night; of Stygian, inky 

 blackness. 



" Few people realise the conditions which ob- 

 tain in this strange submarine world or con- 

 ceive of the stupendous pressure which the im- 

 mense depth of water produces. 



