Hamilton Rotary was treated to an insight into the mysterious world of the deep ocean.

Former Premier, Dr. David Saul, gave members a colourful guided tour of what the oceans around Bermuda hold and some of the otherwise unknown facts about the Island's geographical history.

And he highlighted the danger in deep water dives to 12,000 feet below the Island, and in particular the ground-breaking descents made by the Bathosphere.

The bathosphere went down to 3,028 feet off Nonsuch Island and the two occupants described what they saw by communicating with the surface via a telephone line.

Dr. Saul, speaking at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute of which he is a trustee, also spoke of his own trip down to the depths in a submersible.

"It takes three hours to go down. It was amazing, what we saw was fascinating,'' he said.

He also spoke of Bermuda's position on the ocean floor, rising on a volcanic seamount from 12,000 feet below.

The Island is moving one and a half metres westwards each year, he said, adding that moving tectonic plates had exposed a source of cyanide that was leaking from the ocean floor -- around 180 miles from Bermuda.

But, he said, many marine creatures are living near the deadly gas.

Dr. David Saul surfaces