Until 1860, when a telegraph cable was raised from the ocean floor near Sardinia covered with marine beings, it was believed that no life existed 300 fathoms below the ocean's surface. A wondrous assortment of tidepool and bottom-dwelling seashells and coral skeletons, secreted by now extinct creatures, is gathered here for the viewer's delight, presented in the marine grotto and Wunderkammer style of the 18th Century.