THE DEEP SEA. 295 



also for the sea, in the direction of its depth ; for when 

 we descend, vegetable life vanishes much sooner than the 

 animal, and, even from the depths to which no ray of 

 light is capable of penetrating, the sounding-lead brings 

 up news at least of living infusoria." * 



Who has not felt, when looking over a boat's side into 

 the clear crystal depth, a desire to go and explore ? Even 

 on our own coasts, to see the rich luxuriant forests of 

 Laminaria or Alaria, waving their great brown fronds 

 to and fro, over which the shell-fishes crawl, and on which 

 the green and rosy-fingered Anemones expand like flowers, 

 while the j^ipe-fishes twine about, and the brilliant wrasses 

 dart out and in, decked in scarlet and green, — is a tempting 

 sight, and one which I have often gazed on with admiration. 



" Nothing can be more surprising and beautiful," says 

 Sir A. de Capell Brooke, " than the singular clearness of 

 the water of the Northern Seas. As we passed slowly 

 over the surface, the bottom, which here was in general 

 a white sand, was clearly visible, with its minutest objects, 

 where the depth was from twenty to twenty-five fathoms. 

 Durino; the whole course of the tour I made, nothincj 

 appeared to me so extraordinary as the inmost recesses 

 of the deep unveiled to the eye. The surface of the ocean 

 was unruffled by the slightest breeze, and the gentle 

 splashing of the oars scarcely disturbed it. Hanging over 

 the gunwale of the boat, with wonder and delight I gazed 

 on the slowly moving scene below. A^Hiere the bottom 

 was sandy, the different kinds of Asterias, Echinus, and 



* Schleiden's Lectures, pp. 403-406. 



