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Show Divers See Odd Aquatic Life at Record Depths . Fish New to Science Studied by Observers. Washington. Throngs of tourists lined the cliffs along St Georges harbor, har-bor, Bermuda, as Dr. William Beebe and Otis Barton, intrepid deep-sea divers, steamed out to sea, there to climb Into their steel ball, the bathysphere, bathy-sphere, and be lowered to record depths in the Atlantic off Nonsuch Island, according to the National Geographic society, sponsor of the expedition. ex-pedition. Already the holders of the record deep-sea dive, Doctor Beebe and his companion, in their first attempt took the bathysphere to 2.510 feet. Their prior record was 2,200 feet. In this dive. Doctor Beebe reported by telephone tele-phone that he saw scores of fish new to science. He dictated to his secretary secre-tary above, thousands of words of description de-scription about little known denizens of "a world as strange to Mars." Barton, Bar-ton, with the aid of a special, high-powered high-powered light, took motion pictures of weird creatures that floated and swam by the thick quartz eyes of the bathysphere. bathy-sphere. After an hour at the record depth, during which Doctor Beebe reported the searchlight showed many new forms of life while other creatures could be observed owing to lights they carried on their bodies, the order to haul up was given. Depths Rich In Fish Life. Upon emerging, Doctor Beebe said "I have never seen so much material In my life, and new material, too. Much of it Is entirely different from that which we observed during previous dives. It is the silliest thing in the world to attempt to describe In a few words, but we saw more fish and larger larg-er fish than during any other dive. Every Ev-ery dive convinces me of the futility of trying to get the true Idea of deep-sea deep-sea life through dragging nets. Many deep-sea creatures are such rapid swimmers that they can easily get away from nets. One of the most amazing finds of the day was a flesh-colored flesh-colored fish which I observed at the 2,500-foot level. We observed schools of rare lampanyctus, silver hatchet fish, and thousands of tiny squid." The latest dive, at approximately the same spot as the former record dive, was to 3,028 feet. The bathysphere bathy-sphere remained at that level for only five minutes sufficient time, however, how-ever, to make possible interesting scientific observations which were dictated dic-tated by telephone to a stenographer on the barge from which the heavy ball was lowered. Doctor Beebe reported that the pressure pres-sure at the maximum depth was more than 1,300 pounds to the square inch, but the bathysphere, used successfully on many previous deep-sea dives, showed no leakage. It took 2 hours and 46 minutes to make the dive. 2 hours and 41 minutes of which were spent in descending and ascending. The American flag und the flag of the National Geographic society were carried car-ried on the cable above the sphere. As In the former dive, fish and other forms of undersea life, some recognized recog-nized on the previous dive, and others that were new even to Doctor Beebe and Mr. Barton, flashed into their vision as they peered through the bathysphere windows. In this dark region, nature has provided many of Its creatures with lights which glitter around their bodies. Whether these lights are for Illumination for the purpose pur-pose of finding food or attracting mates, Is a problem which Doctor Beebe hopes to solve during his diving div-ing expeditions. At 2,750 feet, Doctor Beebe glimpsed "an amazingly large fish" which was about 20 feet long. He said this is probably the largest living thing ever seen in the deep sea. The movements of the huge mass of flesh, he reported, could be followed In the blackness by the luminescence of the thousands of small creatures It disturbed. Fishes and other creatures In the zone near the half-mile depth, the naturalist believes, be-lieves, are larger, more numerous, and more brightly illuminated, than In the shallower regions. Some Fish Carry Lights. The bathysphere, which bears the name of the National Geographic society so-ciety and the New York Zoological so- ciety, is a steel ball 4 feet in diam-i eter, with a shell VA Inches thick. It; is too small to permit the two explor-. ers to stand erect Despite their close1 quarters, they were able to take pho-; tographs, and operate searchlights and motion picture cameras. Also Inside the bathysphere was apparatus for; purifying the air. While one of the objects of the ex-, pedltion was to go down a half-mile,: It was not solely record depth that. Doctor Beebe sought Before, be-, tween, and since the two record dives, he and his aides have made many' dives to observe sea life at various i depths. During one dive with only a' helmet, In only 40 feet of water, Doc-1 tor Beebe had Just shot a sharp-nosed j puffer when a 5-foot shark swooped' down on the stunned fish. Doctor i Beebe fought off the shark with the Iron handle of a net he held In his; hand, and obtained his specimen. Later, La-ter, the same day, he was Interrupted in his observations by sharks, barracuda barra-cuda and a green moray eel, but none' attacked him. On these shallow dives he collected excellent specimens of beautifully and weirdly colored fish. |
