IN THE DEPTHS 



51 



the explosion started from the lower depths. 

 This wave moved across the Indian Ocean, pos- 

 sibly reaching down two thousand fathoms 

 from top to bottom, swaying and tossing every- 

 thing it encountered ; until finally rounding the 

 South Pole — -half of the wave on either side — 

 it met and destroyed itself. The South Ameri- 

 can tidal wave of 1877, driven by an earth- 

 quake across the Pacific, may have been of 

 even greater depth, if we may judge by its 

 surface height. The jar that set it in motion 

 must have affected the bottom as well as the 

 lip of the dish. 



Aside from these exceptional violences, which 

 occur only once or more in a century and last 

 for only a few hours, the great depths of the 

 ocean are doubtless very still, very motionless. 

 None of the fret of the surface is felt in them ; 

 only the sluggish exchange of cold and warm 

 currents that drag along the sea ooze or creep 

 inch by inch in vast fields from level to level. 

 The lair of the great polyp is not invaded by 

 wind or wave. Nor by sunlight. The fishes 

 down there have eyes, but eyes perhaps not well 

 fitted for our light. Phosphorescent beams, it 

 is said, are all that ever come to them; but of 

 that we may not be sure. If there were ears 



wherewith to hear in those ocean caves, thev 



The great 

 till III waves. 



Stillness of 



ocean 



depths. 



