nothing surprising in our not seeing any fish. If we wanted to proceed 

 to zoological observations, it would be necessary to brake the descent, 

 so as not to frighten them away, or better still, to hold the bathyscaphe 

 in equilibrium. Perhaps, too, by hanging a bait in front of the porthole 

 we could attract towards us representatives of the fauna of the abyss. 



All life in the sea is dependent upon the upper layers illuminated by 

 the solar rays : by virtue of chlorophyll organic substances are produced 

 here. Small fish and crustaceans feed on living or dead algae, or on 

 diatoms ; then, in their turn, they become the prey of larger creatures. 

 At all levels, animals lie in wait for dead bodies going downwards. 

 They also eat each other. Each depth possesses its particular fauna. 

 Right at the bottom there is a world apart: flat fish, crustaceans, 

 spider-crabs, shells, filtering the water to get out of it anything that is 

 edible. 



We waived the idea of stabilizing the bathyscaphe since this time 

 our object was not to make zoological observations, but to test the 

 Trieste and to demonstrate that it was able to dive to 550 fathoms. If 

 we threw overboard too much ballast we should go up to the surface 

 again without having reached the bottom. It is true that, even so, we 

 could have opened the valve to let out a certain quantity of petrol. 

 However, if the ascent took place at high speed, we should not have 

 been able to let enough out to compensate for the decrease in weight 

 induced by the expansion of the petrol. Before being able to adjust the 

 amount of ballast and petrol, something else was needed : to know at 

 each moment the exact speed of the bathyscaphe. Certainly we had 

 depth gauges, but as has been said, they were not sufficient and we 

 had not yet got our tachometer. ^ 



This time we let the Trieste go straight towards the bottom. Afraid 

 to throw out too much ballast, in the event we did not throw out 

 enough: 400, 500 fathoms. Soon we ought to be able to see the 

 bottom. 



The projector was turned on and suddenly a circular surface 

 appeared in the cone of light. My son, who was at the porthole, called : 

 ' Steady on ! ' like an aeronaut who expects a rough landing. We were 

 already on the bottom : we touched so gently that we were not aware 

 of it. 594 fathoms. 



An oceanographer told me that the sedimentary deposit increased 

 not more than 2V in. a year and that, at the end of several centuries, 

 1 We had it made after our return from Capri. 



[119] 



