OCR Text |
Show DANGERS TO OCEAN CABLES. They Must-Resist Attacks of Many Submarine Monsters. (London Telegraph.) Unexpected perils await submarine cables, even in the depths of the ocean. Though the largest waves in a storm probably do not appreciably disturb the water beyond the first 100 fathoms, if indeed they go so far, currents are BomVjimes strong enough to flay the cabfe against some submarine crag, and various living creatures will do it a misjhief. Among them fishes have long ."been suspected, and now the charge has been proved in a cable connecting con-necting Sydney with Nelson. A defect was detected, and on examining the piece a shark's tooth was found imbedded im-bedded in the sheathing. As that consisted con-sisted of the usual thick iron wires and their outer covering, the aggressor must have given a hard bite. The mo- tlve is not easily divined. Could the j shark have mistaken the cable, in the imperfect light, for a new species of conger, or did it, which seems more likely, blunder against it at a place where it did not touch bottom, and relieve its temper by a vicious snap? A swordfish will express its resentment resent-ment against a vessel by driving the bayonet at the end of its nose into the planks, and a narwhal will use its lance, of ivory in similar fashion; each, like the shark, to its own detriment, for it illustrates the maxim, "Can't you leave it alone?" by losing the weapon of offense. of-fense. The conflict between shark and cable occurred 330 fathoms below the surface, a depth which formerly was supposed to be almost lifeless. But deep-sea dredging during the last thirty thir-ty or forty years told a different story. In the open ocean living creatures generally gen-erally do not descend below a few-hundred few-hundred feet, though they are often enormously abundant in this upper layer lay-er the home of countless fishes, mol-lusks, mol-lusks, Crustacea, and, in many places, of clouds of tiny foraminifera and ca-diolaria, ca-diolaria, with a corresponding abundance abund-ance of seaweeds. But living creatures follow the ocean slopes downward to very great depths. Sponges, at least certain kinds, go far below the 1,000-fathom line. A hydro-zoon hydro-zoon two yards long was dredged up by the Challenger 2,000 fathoms, and occasionally a coral or some near relation re-lation may be found at as great depth. A well known species of the former was brought up on a telegraph cable from more than 1,100 fathoms, and Dr. Carpenter obtained a mollusk, gener ally found in shallow water, from not much less than 15,000 feet. Even at 'depths as low as Mount Everest is high, living creatures have been obtained, ob-tained, but they are comparatively low-in low-in organization.. Still, fishes have been captured at the lowest depths, in which cases they are often blind. Even where they have eyes, those in that region of eternal night would be useless, if they were not able to turn on the light at will by being provided with phospores-cent phospores-cent organs. It is. however, unusual to find a shark so deep as nearly 2,000 feet from the surface. Their teeth have, indeed, been dredged up from profound depths,, imbedded in nodules of manganese oxide, but these have dropped from the jaws of fishes which have lived and died in the upper waters and settled quietly down to the bottom. bot-tom. ; Sharks in general keep near to the surface, a habit 'which makes them such a terror to, bathers. Still, one kind of a shark, more nearly related to the dog fishes than to the dreaded blue shark, is brought up from depths greater than those mentioned. The genus, which contains several species, has a wide range,-and spearlike teeth, one of which may; have done the mischief. mis-chief. Off the Portuguese coast there is a regular fishery1 for a species of this fish, which is about five feet long; it is caught with lines at depths of 400, and occasionally 500, fathoms. As it is accustomed ac-customed to live under, a pressure of about eighty atmospheres, it is dead practically suffocated when brought to the surface. " '. |