Show A q dO r rV 7 r 0 Jt i- i Wit Wit- t I J S t tr 1 f f tJ J r J l i i iI I f Fj Y r r rP P t Y 1 h q 1 r 4 f Y- Y h t jf L La a IA M r 5 1 P l 1 a Fv x oW t tI I Female angler fish forty for inches in length with the degenerate inch four-inch husband ufa a 4 Est attached below and carrying above the rod rod and line used in catching smaller fish a 1 Jr m tc r Professor Beebe Beebe's s Expedition t to Dredge I y the Mysterious Sargasso Sea for the r ti Strange Creatures That Swarm in Filled the r Vl Weed Filled eed-Filled Pilled Water of f Thi Great Nursery of f Animal and arid Plant Life HE most thorough exploration ot of o THE JAL the mysterious Sargasso Sea ever eur attempted will soon be in rn full SWIng Professor William WIlham Beebe the dIstInguIshed naturalist and other SCIentISts representing the American Museum l of Natural History are arc on theIr wa way there on a steamer specially pec de- de desIgned de designed designed signed for tor penetrating these weed filled waters and for bringing up from theIr depths the countless strange forms of vegetables and anIma animal life they are arc be- be believed be believed to hide The Arcturus which is carr carrying mg the expedition e is the biggest ship ever used for scientific work of this nearly kind kind tWice the tonnage of the yacht on whIch the tho late Prince of ot Monaco made his re- re remarkable re remarkable studies of deep sea ea life It ItIs Itis Is equipped an elaborate system of laboratories aquarium tanks and wells wellin m 1 which to keep fish alive alln and cages for birds reptiles and other live animals There are warm ann greenhouses and ice-cold ice refrigerating rooms for tor or preserving the many many rare specImens specimens mens of plant life which which bring II it is hoped to bring back for tor the w museums museum's mu eum's i r- r TV tJ above About four feet fr above a b the t h e water lm line linea m a broad ledge hasa has a e been b built u i I t clear l t iii J around the steam- steam ij 1 r ship for the lists i to stand or sit Son on as they make v their their observations of ot seams sea II 3 1 life At the bow is a platform plat plat- form fonn which can be let Jet down still still nearer the I water ater they sight eight some creatures the they wish to harpoon or shoot or catch alive The Sargasso Sea is a vast area In Inthe inthe the mid Atlantic stretching from the West Nest Indies toward to Europe and Africa which tremendously swift cur cur- nta sweep but which Itse itself remains maInS alm It is estimated to cover square quare miles The water inside this th area Isso is so thIck thickly filled with a tangled of ot yellow vellow ellow weed sea that it looks mOTe more like a meadow than a part of the deep Atlantic Nowhere else In all the world is this weed sea weed found massed together in thIs extraordinary way and it i is no wonder that the sailors of ol other dais days regarded the Sargasso Sea with dread and called It tho the Sunken Meadow of Death It was supposed that once a ship be- be became became came tangled in this mass of weed seaweed sea escape was impossible and that the tl region was full of ot the rottIng hulks of ve vessels els whose whoso crews had bee been caught prisoners there and left to dIe dof ot of starvation and thirst Christopher Columbua Columbus sailed the Sar Sar- Sar Sargasso gasso Sea on the voyage that ended In the inthe discovery of America and has left lefta Iea a curious record of ot what it looked like f and the trouble it caused him lIe He himself had been there before e but it was a new experience to the men who ho sailed with Ith him hun on this memorable e The yellow-green yellow surface of the water terrified the crew and they mutInied Sailors have long since ceased to fear fethe the Sargasso Sea and science now n w 1 knows that instead of being a ol place of M death it is a wonderful nursery of countless strange forms of animal anima and a I plant life 1 life very ery possibly the main source of supply not only for the At At- At f t- t fD W l Y 6 A- A ABelow i Below s the Arcturus Arcturus rus us the thc t splendidly equipped floating laboratory may that is taking Pro Pro- Professor Professor r fessor Beebe and his fellow scientists to the Sar Sar- Sargasso Sargasso Sar- Sar Sargasso r gasso Sea rr l D v ti t I M t 1 v f i ik k i r t- t pet lh t fin 1 1 1 L A- A A'S S 'S 1 Professor William V Beebe lantic Ian tiC but for all aU the other oceans It ha has been established that fish from fro all parts of ot the earth go to this tills portion of ot tho the Atlantic to deposit their eggs In the tropical sub waters filled wIth wi vegetation that supplies abundant food too the young fish are hatched end remaIn in until they are arc old enough to swim to homes that are in m some somo cases thousands of miles away Even fresh water fish are believed Cd to use this for a breeding ground Eels swim down the rivers of Europe and America and make their way through the ocean to tho the Sargasso Sea to de de- de deposit d e- e posit their eggs When the baby eels c Is I e i 7 F 1 c 41 f v vP P- P Po o n p 2 7 s z One of of the snipe snip to the Sargasso Se SeI SeF I F t earth in order to toI d favorable pinc pis eels are old they swim wah wi back to thet the hOJ lithe t I the parents ca main there tJ a time to raise rais lies of their o 0 f a are arc old ugh enough to y travel they swim swi to the thc f fresh freshwater res h f V water ater lakes and ty y i rivers ers nv from which r their parents par parent r e 11 t s sand came and there they re- re remain r rr r main mam until their own ow bleeding bl edIng sea season on comes onIt on onIt It is a n Ion long way war from the Sargasso Sea to the head waters of the Yukon m in Alaska Aa ka but science ia is sure that gie gleat numbers of eels are continually making the journey Journe to and fro They travel In mas massed e l formation and by an uncanny sense of direction d arc are ayas always able to pick the shortest route to their far far- distant dl tant destination The Sargasso Sea is a a huge whirlpool formed by hy the junction of the Gulf Gult Stream and the main equatorial cur cur- current current curent rent which crosses the Atlantic from Africa to Brazil From these those currents It draws into its depths floating obJects from many widely wl ely separated points of the the world Side by side with with a tree trunk whIch originally grew In m the jungles of South AmerIca and was carried into the tho ocean by the waters of ot the Amazon may be found a walrus tusk that has floated down from the Arctic Circle C It is a sort of dumping place for the Se Seven en Seas Sees into which come all aU sorts of things Sir John Murray who ho led an English exploring e expedition to the Sargasso some years ago reported that he found tho wreckage of a great many ShiPS some of them very ery old It If is considered very ry doubtful if anywhere near aU all of these vessels met disaster in III the tangle of weed sea-weed Most of the wreckage was as probably carried there by the ocean oce currents This Tills bears out the strange ol old legend that in III this compact slowly revolving mass of weed sea-weed arc are to be found bits of wreckage that date from the present time back through the ages to the days da s when hen men were first learning to navi gate gale the seas What interests Professor Beebe is t the fact that here within wit a comparatively b IPU iQ 3 by sr b J J eels which travel travel a from allover all over the their eggs in this When the baby I enough to travel unerring instinct from which ine to rc re- re its M rf y 1 wn I rr Small maU area of ocean arc are to be found an enormous number of varieties of marine vegetable and II animal lma life Many of these are arc believed to be things of which science as ns vet yet knows nothing at all allor or of which it has only a hazy idea Tho depths of the sell sea have never been c with thoroughly up date to-date apparatus says Professor Deebe Beebe It seems hardly possible to overestimate the number of surprising wonders that th may be brought to light Ight hen when our dredges and other ingenious lous devices are sunk into the depths of the Sarga Sargasso so Out of the GOO COO specimens of fish In Inthe inthe the museums of the world orld are rep rep- represented re re resented by only one specimen The Themo mo most t remarkable fish yet let et brought i up from great depths have been torn to shreds b by the expansion e of their bodIes on reaching the surface I have hale ha e hopes however howe of devising ways of preventing this and perhaps even elen of catching some specImens alive We know that many of these fish fi come to the surface at n and th that when they ascend in m their own olIn way they th do not blow them themselves ekes es to pieces It IS at such times we expect to catch t tJ m Professor Beebe Beebo also hopes that hIs h expedItion will clear up the mysterIes of the sea serpents the octopi and other othu monsters which luch are frequently reported report as being seen If they use the Sargasso as a breeding place a as BO so many creatures do this should be the place to settle the tl question of their the eXl existence tenc and the ter ter- ter rIt relying ing size sue and appearance which they th attain There is no doubt of the existence ot of i many extraordinary members of the octopus family The only question concerning con con- them is how great a II size they th reach and whether any of them become strong trong and largo large arge enough to seize a shIp m in their tentacles and drag it down as ot 01 own nun ruto Ins Ine In iI 4 N x A deep sea fi 4 fish that has a aFfa luminous bulb r to light its way wayt t r and the small w sr Nil fish fishon on which it feeds D Right an odd comb comb- nation of ocean life a slow moving t 4 r fo fosea sea anemone t t 1 t being carried 1 v vt vt on the back backof of alg the v swift lobster and w no o taxi taximeter meter to reg later the mile mile- mileage age et yam Ij twi 4 I r 3 s y f Y Yf for cen cen- cen i 1 e tunes It has been believed the t h e y nn y Not long ago the remains lams of an nn octopus were ere found and one of its seven arm arms or tentacles s was twenty seven feet long From tip t P to tip of two hlo opposite tentacles tentacle th thIs is monster thus had an arm stretch of t more than four fifty four feet There is more doubt as to the eXIst exist exist- existence ence of the sea serpent but sCIence IS not yet vet et ready to deny that there ther are such uch creatures One of ol tho the many pos pos- possIbIlities of the Beebe expedition wIll wIllbe willbe w be the settlement of this question If It the scientists on board the tho is are fortunate enough to catch a sea s ea serpent or octopus in one of their nets pr r dredges the chances will wm be good for f their bringing it to America a alive e and putting it on exhibition e in some aqua aqua- aquarIum aquarium The ship is IS equipped with tanks tani s enough to accommodate an Immense number of fish of ot almost any abe concel able size Dr Gregory assistant curator of ot the Museum of Natural History who ho is a member of the expedition is more 11 In- In Interested interested in the v v I cry small fish he expects to find than in any of ot the huge one J Among the small ones he hopes to dis di cover new forms which will serve as i s links in the evolutionary development between bet the common types of ot fish and an the highly modified types with huge hu o mouths and great protruding eyes eves e es Another question Another it is hoped to settle self IS the purpose served by the phosphorescent ph pho os ent spots found on the bodies of many sea deep-sea fish These fish arc are blind blin and it has been thought that the spots spot B served them in place of ot eyes e es Previous visitors to the the Sargasso have reported finding varieties of fish luch bUIld nests in which to hatch and res rear theIr young oung Tins This is a matter Professor ProCessor Profess Beebe and his assistants will investigate very nry carefully and if the they find any ot of 3 i 1 jr f these those nest building fi fish h they wIn will make i every effort to capture some living specimens Another question to be settled by the Deebe Beebe expedition is whether the tho mass of drifting sea sea- weed sea eed and other vegetation's vegetation is groll growing larger all the time and also whether hether of ot it show any signs e of f solidifying mg Some Sonic scientists have hate ha e thought that eventually it would oud decay and become become be become come coal The Sargasso weed sea-weed is known to science as um It is 13 brought into nt the great whirlpool b by tides tHes winds and currents from the shores of ot Africa the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf Gult of ot Mexico The weed weed is densely inhabited wIth minute microscopic forms of ot anIma animal and plant life Tufts of ot it gradually become overgrown 01 with Ith peculiar long stemmed plant like forms of anImal life which cause them to sink to th the bottom While sinking they are trans trans- transformed formed into the which forms the nourishment for deep water animal life ThIS substance plays an important partin part in our own food supply by feeding the minute animals which are ars food for forthe forthe the larger fishes which we e eat Captain C C C Dixon sf rf the Royal Roya K ti Geographical Society estimates that fully 90 DO per cent of the weed eed in the Sargasso is beneath the surface It IS hard for a II person seeing the sea for the tho first time to believe that he is not look 1001 looking ing mg upon a gigantic morass Fortunately for the worlds world's com com- commerce merce merco which could make only slow progress through the tangle of sea sea-II sea need eed the Sargasso is far off the regular paths of ocean travel lra Ships rarely come any II where hero near it except when they have ha e been carried off their course 1 |