SKIMMING THE SURFACE 



come to the surfaces of the world's seas, with the innumer- 

 able forms of life which inhabit the world's coastlines, 

 and with the natural conditions which affect such sur- 

 faces and fringes. 



Among the natural forces which create the conditions 

 governing not merely the surfaces and fringes of the 

 oceans, but also the conditions obtaining for a consider- 

 able distance downward into the deeps, so that they 

 affect the life-forms and habits of myriads of sea 

 creatures, are the winds of the world : those invisible 

 currents of air, sometimes gentle and life-giving and at 

 other times horrific in their destructive fury, which have 

 pursued their complicated movements over the earth's 

 surface ceaselessly and uncontrollably from the beginning 

 of time. 



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