Pressure upon Fish

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Mr. Pell, in his late address to the American Institute on the subject of fish, says that at ninety-three feet below the surface of the water a shad would be compelled to bear about the weight of sixty pounds to every square inch of surface on its body ; at three hundred and sixty-one feet, one hundred and eighty-one pounds; at six hundred and six feet, two hundred and eighty-six pounds; at four thousand two hundred and six feet, eighteen hundred and thirty-one pounds to the square inch; at six thousand feet, over one tun. Whales sometimes descend into the depths of the ocean four thousand nine hundred feet, when they sustain considerably over the enormous weight of two hundred thousand tuns—nearly, if not quite, one hundred and thirty-eight tuns to each square foot of surface exposed. The fish do not, of course, feel this pressure, as it is exerted on all portions of their bodies aiike.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 13 Issue 46This article was published with the title “Pressure upon Fish” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 13 No. 46 (), p. 363
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican07241858-363

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