244 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



fish, the sole gain from the bottom of the deep sea has 

 been a few bucketfuls of ooze, rich, indeed, in organic 

 remains of globigerina, diatoms, and foraminifera, but 

 bearing no relation to the works of man. Another 

 similar fact, exemplifying the infinitesimal spots which 

 would-be exploration has been able to reach : out of 

 all the thousands of wrecks, of ships foundered in the 

 deep sea, no portion, not the least fragment, has ever 

 been recovered by the searching drag-nets of explor- 

 ing ships. 



There is another phase of the ocean depths which 

 appeals to the imaginative mind very strongly, the 

 steady set of submarine currents, the enormous flow of 

 what, for a better name, we must call submarine rivers, 

 carrying with them who knows what of influence 

 upon the shores against which they will presently 

 impinge. I cannot dwell too much upon this aspect 

 of the submarine world, having already alluded to it 

 sufficiently in a previous chapter upon currents, but 

 it demands a passing mention here in connection with 

 the title, because if we only knew, with any approach 

 to accuracy, in what direction these unseen currents 

 were trending, what was their origin or cause, and 

 what their effect upon the upper world, many problems 

 of weather and navigation which are at present in- 

 soluble would become comparatively easy of elucida- 

 tion. At present we must content ourselves with the 

 meagre knowledge that these mysterious movements 

 of the lower waters of the ocean, like the incessant 

 flow and return of the currents of the human frame, 

 keep the globe in health, such constant circulation of 

 the whole mighty mass of ocean's body being essential 

 to the avoidance of stagnation and death, death not 



