94. SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



regime of its own; the struggle for existence is 

 intense; the life-saving adaptations and shifts for 

 a living are endless; " passions there, laws, pursuits, 

 tribes," as Walt Whitman said in his " World below 

 the Brine." For it is to the region of the sea- 

 meadows rather than to the deep sea, that most 

 of that vivid picture applies : 



The World below the brine, 



Forests at the bottom of the sea the branches and leaves, 



Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds the 



thick tangle, the openings, and the pink turf, 

 Different colors, pale grey and green, purple, 'white, and 



gold the play of light through the water, 

 Dumb swimmers there among the rocks coral, gluten, 



grass, rushes and the aliment of the swimmers, 

 Sluggish existences grazing there, suspended, or slowly 



crawling close to the bottom. 



This and more also will be subscribed to by all who 

 have spent a summer afternoon drifting here and 

 there over the sea-meadows, peering into the 

 crowded life below, enjoying the play of color, 

 lifting now and again a leaf of sea-grass some- 

 times 6 feet long to discover how many small 

 creatures were browsing there, or raising mare 

 adventurously a stone from the bottom to see what 

 is meant by an " epifauna/' sometimes a dozen dif- 

 ferent kinds of creatures living together in moving 

 equilibrium. " But what an endless task have I on 

 hand to count the sea's abundant progeny, whose 

 fruitful seede farre passeth those on land ... so 

 fertile be the flouds in generation, so huge their 

 numbers, and so numberlesse their nation." 



