BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISII COMMISSION. 253 



LIFE IN THE SEA.* 



By J. B. MARTENS. 



[Teacher of natural sciences at the Seminary of St. Nikolas, Belgium.] 



Though the land is inhabited by thousands and thousands of differ- 

 ent kinds of animals, differing in shape, size, and mode of life, life in 

 the sea shows still greater abundance and variety. To further estab- 

 lish this assertion shall be our object in a few plain remarks based upon 

 natural history. 



I. — THE LARGEST ANIMALS LIVE IN THE WATER. 



The water surpasses the land in more respects than one. It occupies 

 by far the larger portion of our globe ; so great, in fact, is the extent 

 of water over its surface that it much rather deserves the name of 

 "water globe" than that of terrestrial globe. If we could leave our 

 earth and, floating through the vast expanse of the heavens, take a 

 bird's-eye view of it, it "would, seen from a certain point, show hardly 

 anything but the water. Not only does the water occupy a greater por- 

 tion of our globe than the land, but the animals living in it are also 

 larger. This agrees with a remarkable law of nature, according to which 

 the size of the larger species of animals is proportionate to the extent 

 of territory limited by nature. You will pardon me if we leave the sea 

 for awhile to take a cursory view of the land ; and I hope you will be- 

 come convinced of the actual existence of this law of nature. 



The Old World, comprising Europe, Asia, and Africa, is the largest 

 continent rising from the water; and here we also find the largest quad- 

 rupeds; the gigantic elephant, the heavy rhinoceros, the stout hippo- 

 potamus, the long-necked giraffe, whose head is eighteen feet above the 

 ground, the camel, so useful to travelers in the arid desert, and the 

 horse, so strong and at the same time so docile in man's hand. 



The next largest continent is America. It was no misnomer when 

 this continent, upon its discovery, received the name of the New World, 

 for everything was new ; and the eyes of the astonished Europeans be- 

 held plants and animals differing from anything they had seen hitherto. 

 Here the large animals of the Old World were wanting ; not one was 

 found as large as the horse or the ox. To-day all this is changed, for 

 these useful animals, long since introduced into America, are numerous 

 throughout all parts of the New World. In South America they even 



* Ret Leven in de Zee. Eene Voordracht door J. B. Martens, Kanunnik, leeraar van 

 natuurlijke wetenschappcn aan hct Klein Seminarie, te Sint-Nikolaas ( Waas). 24mo., pp. 

 48. Translated from the Dutch by Herman Jacobsox. 



Note. — I have omitted numerous quotations of Scripture from the translation. — 

 Editor. 



