An Interesting Expedition
J ' (London Standard.); , '. > f M.r J. Stanley Garjiiwr. Lecturer in Zoology, and Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, leader of the Siaden Trust Kxpedition for exploration in the Indian Ocean, has giv<?n "a representative of Reuter's Agency an account of the chief results of the- expedWon. Mr Gardiner, who returned to England- c a few days ago. said : — " Accompanied by my assistant, Mr «T. Forsler Cooper, I left England in March of last year, and joined H.M.S. Sealark, Commander Boyle Somerville, at Colombo, in May. We shaped a course for tho Cltagos Archipelago, south of the Loccadives, which is believed to be on the line of a former land' connection between .India and Madagascar, and the site of submerged! land. 33etwe«n all tho different atolls ' end banks of the group, soundings were taken, and these went to show that if land had existed th&re- tho subsequent depression must have been very groat indeed. Personally, I do not think there is any ques- _ tion that land existed at- one time- or other between Colombo and Madagascar, i '•■ It may be said that the great depth 1 of water in that region rather <?oes against ■ any supposition of that kind. The enormj ously strong currents, however,' must he I taken into* account. These could easily have worn away the bottom and increased the depth, more especially in view of a. * discovery we mads — namely, that these- cur-. routs extended to the bottcm. This is uninteresting point, as up to the present it, ! had been believed that currents" wete" active cnJy to a comparatively , small distance be- .- low ihe surface. . .' " Th© expedition came to an end at ihe -. Seychelles. As we look back over the result of our labours several facts are at once", ealient. For instance, as far as land oni- . I rr.als are concerned, we were exceedingly r disappointed. None of the specimens were indigenous. All seened to have bc-ea brought to the islands by artificial^ moans. • Each re3f was different from its neighbour, and all were different fro.-n these in the Pacific Ocean or other j,arts of the world. Enormous stem.3 of black coral — the rarest! variety — 7ft high were secured. The reefs., wo found, were mainly forced of whit© coral. "A very considerable variety of d^epsea fish weic brought up. At least half the number we secured seem quite new , specimens, and. I believe, aro not described! in any text book. Some of these had encrmous eyes, some only ludimentary eyes, ihe size of a pin's head, while some had: no eyes at all. On© of the most interesting; discoveries we made was that floating life is exceedingly abundant at all depths down, . to about 1200 fathoms in seas 2500 fathoms I dt-<?p. By floating life I mean animate I which form the f^ood o r whales and deep i ocean fish, and which, up to the- present, I Pave been believed to live on or very close - to the surface. A variety -of enormous squids were fished out, as well . as vjelly. fish, and gigantic prawns - fully 6in long-. ,* Some, of these latter were blind, while • others had hug© eyes, but nearly all of then?! - had phosphorescent organs, which would naturaJly be- due to the fact that they live at a denth where almost total darkrfess prevails. The -blind varieties had enormous feelers or antennae, sonva of them, extending to twice th© "length of thei? bodies. " Some forme, such as the water flea, which is only about the size of a pin's heed . in surface water, we discovered six or ten times that size in 600 or 700 fathoms."
— A litigation which arose from 100 bales of jute, -value £174, going amiseinsr between Calcutta and Dundee has run up a bill for <yj*fiS€g to. tk fame ftf £920 l& 3d.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19060425.2.271
Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 72
Word Count
634An Interesting Expedition Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 72
Using This Item
Allied Press Ltd is the copyright owner for the Otago Witness. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Allied Press Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.