THE TEEMING LIFE OF THE WATERS 



his future. Then the Oceanids, daughters of the 

 waves, rise about him, console and encourage him; 

 they bring him aid and help him to bear the evils 

 Fate has laid upon him. The earthly world, in which 

 we are enchained in so far as we are bound to live 

 in accordance with the exigencies of our organisation, 

 is becoming tiny. The progress of science makes 

 existence easier and so increases the human population, 

 but, within the narrow confines of the continents, 

 cannot, at the same time, increase proportionately the 

 resources at the disposal of that population. The earth 

 is small; travellers tell us that they never can say when 

 and where they will come upon someone they know. 

 The seas are ready to provide what is lacking. Their 

 resources are considerable. Far from being barren, 

 they are fertile and produce in plenty. That produce, 

 unlike the produce of woods and fields, has com- 

 paratively little of the plant in it; it is made up 

 principally of animals, but is none the less a valuable 

 offering. The gift of the Oceanids is still worth 

 having. Man, the latest arrival upon the globe, be- 

 comes the beneficiary of all the resources accumulated 

 by the life that has preceded him. 



The necessity of taking from the world of waters 

 and making full use of that vast treasure-house demands 

 our attention and our effort. Human science began 

 by investigating the earth and its produce; it is 

 continued by the exploration of the seas. It set out 

 with geographical expeditions; now, except in a few 

 remote places, it has found out what it wished to 

 know and accumulated a store of knowledge. At 

 the present day, by means of oceanographical cruises, 

 it is continuing to learn all that is to be learned about 

 its new domain. Along the coast, in nearly every sea, 

 laboratories are being built, so that the produce of 

 those seas may be studied and we may learn how 

 to make use of it. Such an attitude, such enter- 

 prises, are characteristic of the time in which we live 

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