People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1895 — FACTS ABOUT THE SEA. [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT THE SEA.

Dr. Young estimates the mea* depth of the Atlantic at about I(J,OX> feet The saline matter held in solution in sea water comprises one thirtieth of its weight The water of the Mediterranean contains a greater portion of salt that of the ocean. The sea-cypress a kind of coral, sometimes has 6,000 to 10,000 animals on a single branch. Nearly three fourths of the world's drainage, directly ob indirectly, pours into the Atlantic ocean. It is estimated that the water of the whole ocean contains in solution over 2,000,000 tons of pure siler. It is estimated that two years are required for the gulf water to travel ♦rotn Florida to the coast of Norway. r . The banks of Newfoundland are formed by the sand, earth and stones brought from the North by the icG* bergs. If the surface of the earth were perfectly level, the waters of the ocean would cover it to a depth of 600 feet. The ocean hydrae have no heart, no lungs, no liver, no brains, no nervous system, no organs save mouth and skin. The bed of the North Atlantic consists of two valleys, separatsd by a mountain range that runs from tho Azores to Iceland. The whole bottom of the ocean*ih covered with a layer of calcareous ooze, mingled with the skeletons and other animal remains of it* inhabitants. If it were not for the salts of the ocean the whole sea would soon become a mass of corruption, owing to the decay of the organic matter it contains. The sea has no herbivorous inhabitant. Its population lives on each other, and the whole of this immense expanse of water is one great slaughter house, where the strong forever prey upon the weak.