We ordinarily think of the bottom
of the ocean as clean and sandy and
waving with seaweed, like the bottom
of an aquarium. This is actually the
condition of certain parts of the sea
near the shore, where it is not too
dark for plants to live and whefre a
strong current flows over a sandy bot
tom. The real depths of midocean,
however, are in the darkness of abso
lute night, and as for the bottom, It Is
lifeless. In fact. It consists of the
bodies of billions of dead plants and
animals. This vast graveyard, thou
sands of square miles in extent, hun
dreds of feet deep, has been built up
by millions of years of decay of the
minute organisms floating in mid
ocean. This soft, muddy deposit is
known as ooze, or more intimately by
snch strange names, as diatom ooze
(green plants) and cadiolarlan ooze
(small animals).
Answers to Yesterday's Questions,
1. Sturgeons are found In the Great
Lakes and the Mississippi River sys
tem.
2. Rainbow trout are found in
brooks of the Southern Appalachians.
3. A barracuda is a fish of tropical
American waters, dangerous to hu
mans.
4. Fishes hav© blood.
6. Flvlng fish do not have wings.
They "fly” by means of strong leaps.
Perhaps their fins act a little as glid
ing organs.
6. Manatees, though living In the
ocean, are not fishes, but mammals.
What Tomorrow Means to You
BY MARY BLAKE.
