*'wHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW of the sca cvcn today? Just 

 that Httle revealed to us by nautical soundings rather 

 limited in scope ; just the animals and the objects fished 

 up by more or less blind dredgings ; and, finally, just that 

 firagmentary information brought to the surface by 

 divers, few of whom have ever gone below the surface 

 with scientific intent and certainly none of whom have 

 ever descended from a poetic urge. 



No, the fact is that man must admit that quite close to 

 his shores — practically within a few feet — an unknown 

 world begins, a zone more secret and mysterious than any 

 unexplored territory that ever was on dry land. And this 

 secret world laps all our shores, covers the greater part of 

 the maps of our world with featureless blue, contains the 

 most astonishing and prodigious forms of animal life, and 

 conceals the ultimate origin of all life whether on land or 

 sea. 



Even for men who live all their lives along the coasts 

 and perhaps spend the greater part of their lives at sea, 

 this other world is still a tremendous enigma, a sheer 

 mass beyond the reach of our direct knowledge." 



Pierre de Latil and Jean Rivoire 



Man and the Underwater World 



(Jarrolds. 1956) 



