4 THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE CHAP.I 



gliding worms, fleets of Portuguese Men-of-War and 

 throbbing jelly-fish, and minute forms of life as numerous 

 in the waves as motes in the sunlit air of a dusty town. 



" But what an endless worke have I in hand, 

 To count the seas abundant progeny, 

 Whose fruitful seede farre passeth those on land, 

 And also those which wonne in th' azure sky ; 

 For much more eath to tell the starres on hy, 

 Albe they endlesse seem in estimation, 

 Than to recount the seas posterity ; 

 So fertile be the floods in generation, 

 So huge their numbers, and so numberlesse their nation." 



Realise Walt Whitman's vivid picture :- 



" 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 colours, 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 : 



The sperm-whale at the surface, blowing air and spray, or dis- 

 porting with his flukes, 



The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea- 

 leopard, and the sting ray. 



Passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes sight in those ocean depths 

 breathing that thick breathing air, as so many do." 



The sea appears to have been the cradle, if not the 

 birthplace, of the earliest forms of animal life, and some 

 have never wandered out of hearing of its lullaby. From 

 the sea, animals seem to have migrated to the shore and 

 thence to the land, but also to the great depths. Of the 

 abundant life of the great abysses there has been rapidly 

 increasing knowledge since the memorable time when the 

 Challenger expedition (1872-76), under Sir Wyville Thom- 

 son's leadership, following the suggestions gained during 

 the laying of the Atlantic cables and the tentative voyages 

 of the Lightning (1868) and the Porcupine (1870), re- 

 vealed what was virtually a new world. During 



