LIFE IN THE DEEP SEA. 65 



swimming. Dentalium entale, Leda pygmcea, and Cryp- 

 todon flexuosus have been taken alive in the northern 

 seas at two hundred fathoms' depth : in the -^gean Sea, 

 Kellia ahyssicola and Necera cuspidata, two little bivalves, 

 were dredged, the former in one hundred and eighty, the 

 latter in one hundred and eighty-five fathoms; and Area 

 imhricata in two hundred and thirty fathoms. 



Nor is the power of sustaining life at such immense 

 depths confined to the molluscan tribes ; zoophytes rival 

 them in this respect. Great tree-like corals, Primnoa and 

 Oculina, spring from the bottom-rocks, to which they are 

 affixed, at a depth of a hundred fathoms and upwards : 

 the magnificent Ulocyathus arcticus, a free coral, recently 

 discovered by Sars, lives on the mud at two hundred 

 fathoms ; Bolocera Tuedice, Tealia digitata, and Peachinu 

 Boeckii, soft-bodied sea-anemones, reach to the same 

 depth, while other sj)ecies of the same race, — Capnea 

 sanguinea and Actinopsis flava live at the amazing depth 

 of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred fathoms. 



It has been observed that the shells of mollusca which 



inhabit very deep water are almost entirely devoid of 



positive colour, and this has been supposed to be the 



inevitable result of the darkness in which thev live ; for 



it is assumed that all or nearly all the sun's light must 



be absorbed by so vast a mass of water. But yet most 



of these zoophytes are highly-coloured animals, — the 



Actinopsis being of a fine yellow, the Bolocera, Tecdia, 



and Capnea of a red more or less intense, and the 



Ulocyathus of the most refulgent scarlet. The pressure 



E 



