ic and Mediterranean and declared t t all in t. It seemed a reasonable assumption. t at t deptlife, and ter at suco be extreme. So it came assomet transatlantic telegrap o be ted ritus.

    t really organized investigation of t come until 1872, ion betisy, and tis setfortsmouters, netting fiss. It ly dreary  of a complement of 240 scientists and cre mad—“driven to distraction by tine of years of dredging” in torian Samantt 70,000 nautical miles of sea, collected over 4,700 neion to create a fifty-volume report (een years to put togetific discipline:

    oceanograps, t tobe submerged mountains in tlantic, prompting some excited observers to speculatet t continent of Atlantis.

    Because titutional ly ignored t fell to devoted—and veryoccasional—amateurs to tell us er exploration beginsis Barton in 1930. Altners, tten attention. Born in 1877 into a o-do family in Ney, Beebe studied zoology at Columbia University, took ajob as a birdkeeper at ty. tiring of t, o adoptturer and for t quarter century traveled extensively ttractive female assistants ec” or “assistant in fised titles like Edge of table books on hology.

    In trip to ts ofdangling,” as eron, ure. Alts t, it  Barton  of itsconstruction. It iny and necessarily robust c iron 1.5 incaining quartz blocks t only if to become extremely ed. Even by tandards of tecicated. ty—it simply  primitive breatem: to neutralize t out open cans of soda lime, and to absorb moisture tub of calcium cimes o encouragecions.