IN THE DEPTHS 



61 



of whales. Few, if any, shore deposits are 

 apparent in it. The rock is vitreous refuse 

 belched forth by subterranean or insular vol- 

 canoes. The minerals are supposed to be of 

 cosmic origin — planetary dust and meteoric 

 fragments that have fallen into the sea and 

 become disintegrated. The great quantity of 

 sharks' teeth remains quite unaccounted for — 

 at least their apparent gathering together in 

 these ocean basins is considered very strange. 



Another thing that seems quite inexplicable 

 is that no deep-sea dredge, no rope of steel, 

 has ever drawn up anything from the Eed Clay 

 beds that tells of humanity. In shallow waters 

 it may well be there lie 



"A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon; 

 Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, 

 Inestimable stones, invalued jewels, 

 All scattered in the bottom of the sea." 



Without doubt there are whitened bones, and 

 ship-girders of iron, and great guns of steel, 

 lying down below the lost fields of battle or of 

 tempest ; but not in the great depths have any 

 such relics been found. The sunken basins give 

 no hint of man or his doings. Perhaps his years 

 of navigation have been too few. The Red Clay 

 floor is one of very slow accumulation and is 



Contents of 

 the sea 

 pita. 



Nothinq of 

 humnviiy 

 in the great 

 depths. 



