THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 7267, 15 October 1891, Page 4

THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN.

A famous diver tells singular stories of hii adventurea when making search In the deep waters of the ocean. He givea the following sketch of what he «aw on the Silver Banks, near Hayti : ' The banki of the coral on which my divings were made nre about foity milei in length, and from ten to twenty in breadth. 'On this bank of coral is preaented to the direr one of the most beautiful «nd lublime f canes the eye ever beheld. 'The water varies from ton to one hundred feet in depth, and is so dear that the diver can see from two to three hundred feet while submerged, wiib very little obstruction to the Bight. ' The bottom of the ocean in many places on these banka is aa smooth aa a marble floor ; in others it ia studded *ith cotal columns, from ten to one hundred feet in height, and from one to eight feet in diameter. 'The tops of the more lofty support a myriad of pyramidtcal pendants, each forming a myriad more, giving the reality to the imaginary abode of some water nymph. ' In other places the pendants form arch after arch, and as the diver stands on the bottom of the ocean, and gazes through these into the deep, winding ■venue, he feels that they fill him with ■s deep an awe as if he were in some old cathedral which bad long teen burled beneath ' old ocean's wave.' ' Here and there the coral extends even to the surface of the water, as if thoie loftier columns wero towors be* longing to those stately temples now in ruin'. •There were countless varieties of diminutive trees, shrubs, tod plants in every cievico of the coral, where the water bad deposited the least earth. 'They were all of afa'nt hueowirjg (o the pale light they received, although of every ehade and entirely different from plant? I am familiar with that vegetate on dry land, One in par' ttcnlar attracted my attention ; it resembled a eea fan of immense s ; zo, of var'gated colors and of the most brilliant hue. 'The 6sh which inhabit those banka I fcund as different in kind as the ■:eoery was varied. They were of all forma and colors, from the symmetrical qloby to the glche-like sunfieb ; from those of the dullest hue to the changeable dolphin ; from the spots of the leopard to the hues of the sunbeam ; from the harmleis minnow to the voracious shark.