88 THE WONDER OF LIFE 



(6) Plantless. The second big fact is that, beyond the 

 sunk resting stages of some simple Algse, there are no plants 

 in the Deep Sea. This follows from the absence of light, 

 and it involves as a consequence that all the Deep-Sea 

 animals must be either carnivorous or devourers of debris. 

 There are the usual ' nutritive chains ' abyssal fish eating 

 abyssal crustacean, and that eating worm, and that eating 

 still smaller fry ; but since they cannot all be eating one 

 another there must be some extraneous food-supply. That 

 is afforded by the gentle and ceaseless rain of small organ- 

 isms, killed by vicissitudes in the pelagic meadows over- 

 head, and sinking through the miles of water like snow- 

 flakes falling on a very still day. Investigation all goes to 

 show that while big corpses like those of fishes are doubt- 

 less all to the good if they reach the bottom undevoured, 

 what counts for the Deep-Sea basal food-supply is the rain 

 of microscopic atomies. 



(c) No Bacteria. There are abundant bacteria in the 

 sea, in the economy of which they play a very important 

 role, but there seem to be none in the great abysses. It is 

 interesting to know of one place in the wide world where 

 there are no microbes. From their absence it follows that 

 there is no rottenness ; everything is devoured in the great 

 clearing-house. The whale's carcass is picked bare, by 

 crustaceans in particular ; the skeleton is dissolved 

 away till only the stone-like ear-bones are left. Of the 

 great shark everything soon disappears save the teeth. 



(d) Representative Fauna. The animal population of the 

 abysses includes representatives of most of the classes of 

 animals from Protozoa to Fishes. Let us run through the 

 list. There are many kinds of Foraminifera and a few 

 Radiolarians (not including, of course, the sunk shells of 



