DEEP-SEA GROWTHS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21278, 3 September 1932, Page 10

DEEP-SEA GROWTHS

SPECIMENS ON RECORDER UNUSUAL SEAWEEDS FOUND CORAL RESEMBLING A TREE Quaint objects from the depths of the ocean were brought to the surface during the operations near Norfolk Island of the cable ship Recorder. The vessel returned to rts base off Devonport yesterday. Strangest among the marine growths obtained was a seaweed which, in general form, bore a resemblance to a poplar, although its leaves had the spiny nature of the cactus. The stem of the seaweed was hollow. The plant was found attached to a cable hauled on board, and the second officer, into whose possession it came, did not pay much attention to it. In a few minutes he was surprised to see three centi-pede-like creatures emerge from the hollow stein to mako an inspection of thennew surroundings. The Recorder was undoubtedly strange after a habitat almost a mile beneath tho surface of the ocean, and the creatures did not survive long. A cable raised from a mile deep on the ocean bed had attached to it a seaweed of tho appearance of a fern. Its form was so striking that one of the crew mounted it, and it is now an object of pride to its owner.

An especially rare specimen which came into tho possession of an officer was a coral which had tho fantastic qualities of a Japanese miniature tree. The trunk and the branches were well defined, while it was not difficult to imagine tho tracery of the remainder of the coral as foliage. The root, when cut away from the cable, brought away with it a portion of the protecting covering of the cable. A laco coral was obtained on a cable ra ised from a depth of several hundred fathoms. Of an extremely delicate nature, it had something of the appearance of the laco characteristics in Dresden china articles. Such discoveries are not uncommon on the Recorder, and several members of the crew possess interesting collections. Some specimens of the marine life secured have been presented to the Auckland War Museum.