Deep sea

“ For many ages the deep sea seemed to defy all the efforts of man to explore its depths and to find out its secrets, but now even the ocean has to own him master in this respect, and to submit to have its treasures brought to light. ”

“ There is about the deep sea, even in the hottest weather, a delicious atmosphere of cool cleanliness, a searching purity, such as the earth can never yield, giving one the fixed idea that to this vast, unpollutable limpidity the nations owe their health. In some dim fashion this thought is present with all sea-farers, however dense and unnoticing they may be. ”

“ We used to think till within a very few years past, that at the bottom of the deep sea there were no living things—that miles below the surface of the ocean, in total darkness, and under such a weight of water as would crush us to a jelly, there could be nothing, except stones, and sand, and mud. ”

“ The tidal movement of the ocean, deep-sea currents, and the agitation of inland waters by the wind, lift up the sands strewn over the bottom by diluvial streams or sent down by mountain torrents, and throw them up on dry land, or deposit them in sheltered bays and nooks of the coast—for the flowing is stronger than the ebbing tide, the affluent than the refluent wave. ”

“ These deep sea soundings, this study of the wind and currents and temperature of the ocean, these gradual approaches to greater familiarity with the wonders of the great deep, are pregnant with incalculable usefulness to those who conduct mighty navies, as well as to all who go down to the sea in ships. ”

“ We have no more large oceans or deep seas,—nothing but inland waters; many straits, gulfs, and seas analogous to the Channel, the Red Sea, the Adriatic, the Baltic, and the Caspian; pleasant shores, quiet harbors, large lakes and streams, aerial rather than aquatic fleets, an almost always clear sky, especially in the morning. There are no mornings on Earth so luminous as ours. ”

“ There is reason to believe that they exist in all, or almost all parts of the deep sea, for never in any instance yet has the deep-sea line ceased to run out, even after the plummet had reached the bottom. ”

“ The most ingenious and beautiful contrivances for deep-sea sounding were resorted to. By exploding heavy charges of powder in the deep sea, when the winds were hushed and all was still, the echo or reverberation from the bottom might, it was held, be heard and the depth determined from the rate at which sound travels through water. ”

“ The great quantity of peculiar forms and of soft bodies existing in the innumerable carapaces, accompanied by the observation of the number of unknowns, increasing with the depths—these are the arguments which seem to me to hold firmly to the opinion of stationary life at the bottom of the deep sea. ”

“ It is probably safe to say that the honour of being the original cradle of life lies between the shore of the sea and the open sea.
The Great Deeps
3. A third haunt of life is the floor of the Deep Sea, the abyssal area, which occupies more than a half of the surface of the globe. It is a region of extreme cold—an eternal winter; of utter darkness—an eternal night—relieved only by the fitful gleams of "phosphorescent" animals; of enormous pressure—21⁄2 tons on [Pg 84] the square inch at a depth of 2,500 fathoms ”

“ Another discovery that has been made by deep-sea sounding is, that the lowest depths of the ocean are always in a state of profound calm. Oceanic storms do not extend to the bottom. When the tempest is lashing the surface of the sea into a state of the most violent and tremendous agitation, the caverns of the deep are wrapped in perfect repose. ”

“ Sailing through the trade-wind.—"If all the breathings out of heartfelt emotion which the contemplation of nature forces from the sailor were recorded in the log-books, how much farther should we be advanced in the knowledge of the natural state of the sea! Once wandering over the ocean, he begins to be impressed by the grand natural tableau around him with feelings deep and abiding. The most splendid forecastle is lost in the viewless surface, and brings home to us the knowledge of our nothingness ”

“ Ten days of calms (blazing sun or a torrent of rain) and a few faint airs in the night time—and we had gained but a hundred miles. 'Our smart passage,' that we had hoped for when winds were fair and fresh, was out of question; but deep-sea philosophy has a counter for every occasion, and when the wind headed us or failed, someone among us would surely say, "Well, wot's th' odds, anyway? More bloomin' days, more bloomin' dollars, ain't it?" ”

“ Now, a time of high mountains and deep seas would mean a larger dry land surface for the world, and a more restricted sea surface, and a time of low lands would mean a time of wider and shallower seas. ”

“ the sea is still and deep.
All things within its bosom sleep!
A single step, and all is o'er;
A plunge, a bubble, and no more; ”

“ But also the powerful attraction of the land, particularly of great mountain ranges, lifts the sea-surface in some regions hundreds of feet higher than in others. So that a ship, passing from the neighbourhood of a mountainous coast to [p. 128] mid-ocean, may be actually sailing or steaming downhill, actually descending a vast gentle watery slope.
Another question as to Ocean’s level has much exercised the minds of men.
Throughout the world, remains of sea-creatures in countless multitudes are found embedded in the substance of water-built rocks: sometimes the very rocks being made up of them. ”

“ That must be a firm make of rock which can permanently resist the effect of sea waves breaking upon or near the shore. And even deeper down, where waves are not and currents may be slow, some movement must still exist, since the ocean is nowhere quite stagnant. ”

“ When pushed forward into deep water, vast masses are lifted up by their inherent buoyancy, and, broken off at the landward end, are borne away by the winds, or on tides and currents, to parts of the sea far removed from their place of formation. ”

“ Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it: many church steeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above. There dwell the Sea King and his subjects. ”

“ She gazed, although she knew not why,
Where ocean seemed another sky.
The moon looked down upon the deep,
Till in that deep it seemed to be;
Scarce might the eye the image keep
Of which was sky, and which was sea. ”

“ In modern times we have learned a great deal more of the ocean than the ancients knew, from dredging. By this means we have become acquainted not only with the outline of the bottom, but have also become acquainted with the temperature of deep seas, with the varied forms of animal and vegetable life which are present there, and have come to know, with far greater certainty and completeness than ever before, the part which the ocean has played and is still playing in the preparation of the land. ”

“ and, clambering down a crag, I find myself at the extremity of a long beach. How gladly does the spirit leap forth, and suddenly enlarge its sense of being to the full extent of the broad, blue sunny deep! A greeting and a homage to the Sea! I descend over its margin, and dip my hand into the wave that meets me, and bathe my brow. That far-resounding roar is Ocean's voice of welcome. His salt breath brings a blessing along with it. ”

“ Many a green isle needs must be
In the deep wide sea of Misery,
Or the mariner, worn and wan,
Never thus could voyage on—
Day and night, and night and day, _5
Drifting on his dreary way,
With the solid darkness black
Closing round his vessel's track:
Whilst above the sunless sky,
Big with clouds, hangs heavily, _10
And behind the tempest fleet
Hurries on with lightning feet,
Riving sail, and cord, and plank,
Till the ship has almost drank
Death from the o'er-brimming deep; ”

“ But if there was nothing but the grand old ocean itself, it would be enough. Whether it is calm and quiet, just rolling in steadily upon the shore, in long lines of waves, which come sweeping and curling upon the beach and then breaking, spread far out over the sand—or whether the storm-waves, tossing high their lofty heads, come rushing madly upon the coast, dashing themselves upon the sands and thundering up against the rocks, the sea is grand! ”

“ The mariner will have dominion over the atmosphere and the great deep, over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air. ”

“ The leaping waves with their white-capped crest
The plunge and lunge on the ocean's breast
Like wild, white horses racing free,
With the swing of the rolling, surging sea!
The white sea cloud that drifts like a dream;
The sea-gulls that skim o'er the waves, and scream;
The dolphin's plunge and the petrel's nest,
That is borne to land on the tide-race crest:
And all that goes, from mid-ocean to lea,
To make up the rolling, the surging sea! ”

“ A sailless vessel drops adown the stream, And like it, to a sea as wide and deep, Thou driftest gently down the tides of sleep. ”

“ When considering the bottom of the ocean, we have, in the imagination, been disposed to regard the waters of the sea as a great cushion, placed between the air and the bottom of the ocean to protect and defend it from these abrading agencies of the atmosphere. ”

“ At the first bend he lost sight of the sea with its labouring waves for ever rising, sinking, and vanishing to rise again—the very image of struggling mankind—and faced the immovable forests rooted deep in the soil, soaring towards the sunshine, everlasting in the shadowy might of their tradition, like life itself. And his opportunity sat veiled by his side like an Eastern bride waiting to be uncovered by the hand of the master. ”

“ Water—the mighty, the pure, the beautiful, the unfathomable—where is thy element so glorious as it is in thine own domain, the deep seas? What an infinity of power is in the far Atlantic, the boundary of two separate worlds, apart like those of memory and of hope! or in the bright Pacific, whose tides are turned to gold by a southern sun, and in whose bosom sleep a thousand isles, each covered with the verdure, the flowers, and the fruit of Eden! But, amid all thy hereditary kingdoms, to which hast thou given beauty, as a birthright, lavishly as thou hast to thy favourite Mediterranean? ”

“ The little fleet will soon appear yonder betwixt the ocean and God’s sky with its white or brown sails. To-day the sky is unclouded, the sea calm; the flood tide floats the fishers gently to the shore. But the Ocean is a capricious old fellow, who takes all shapes and sings in many voices. ”

“ Neither in its clearness, its colour, its fantasy of motion, its calmness of space, depth, and reflection, or its wrath, can water be conceived by a lowlander, out of sight of sea. A sea wave is far grander than any torrent—but of the sea and its influences we are not now speaking; and the sea itself, though it can be clear, is never calm, among our shores, in the sense that a mountain lake can be calm. The sea seems only to pause; the mountain lake to sleep, and to dream. ”

“ More interesting than these in appearance are those dusky-winged swifts of the ocean, the shearwaters, travellers the same way, not in flocks but singly and in twos and threes and sometimes as many as half a dozen, all keeping wide apart, searching the sea as they go, moving very swiftly above the water in a series of wide curves looking like shadows of birds passing, invisible, far up in the sky. ”

“ If we could see the great ocean as it can be seen by no mortal eye, beholding at one view what we are now obliged to visit in detail and spot by spot,—if we could, from a flight far higher than the eagle's, view the immense surface of the deep all spread out beneath us like a universal chart,—what an infinite variety such a scene would display! ”

“ We are led to a period when the waters of the primitive ocean must have covered the summits of our highest mountains, and are irresistibly compelled to admit one of two conclusions: either that the sea has retired, and sunk beneath its former level; or that some power, operating from beneath, has lifted up the islands and continents, with all their hills and mountains, from the watery abyss to their present elevation above its surface. ”

“ We are often held spellbound by the majesty of mountains, and indeed a lofty peak forever capped with snow, or pouring forth smoke and ashes, is impressive beyond all terrestrial things. But the ocean yields to nothing in its grandeur, in its age, in its ceaseless movement, and the question remains forever unanswered, “Who shall sound the mysteries of the sea?” ”

“ Every drop of water in the sea is as obedient to law and order as are the members of the heavenly host in the remotest regions of space; for when the morning stars sang together in the almighty anthem, we are told "the waves also lifted up their voice" in chorus; and doubtless, therefore, the harmony in the depths of the ocean is in tune with that which comes from the spheres above. ”

“ We might enlarge endlessly on this great ocean current, but enough, we think, has been said to show that the sea, instead of being an ocean of unchanging drops, driven about at random by the power of stormy winds, is a mighty flood flowing in an appointed course—steady, regular, and systematic in its motions, varied and wonderful in its actions, benign and sweet in its influences, as it sweeps round and round the world, fulfilling the will of its great Creator. ”

“ We sail on, and soon a sudden turn brings us abruptly to the mouth of the sound. A bold headland, studded around with rocky islets, rises perpendicularly from the sea, bleak and bare, without a bush or tree, or the faintest trace of the proximity of man. The broad swell of the Atlantic comes rolling in among these rocks, and breaks in foam against the grey cliffs overhead. In tempests, such a scene must be of the most terrific kind. Wo to the hapless vessel that is sucked into the vortex of these breakers, whose roar is sometimes heard at the distance of miles! ”