CHAPTER III. 



LIFE IN THE SEA. 



In 1839 Edward Forbes made the first attempt at a rational 

 classification of marine organisms with respect to their physical 

 surroundings by suggesting that four clearly defined zones could 

 be distinguished round the shores of the British Islands, in each 

 of which there was a characteristic fauna and flora. Between 

 high and low water tide marks was the Littoral Zone, a region 

 daily exposed to the atmosphere by the withdrawal of the tide. 

 Then followed the Laminarian Zone, so called from the pre- 

 dominance of the large leathery-looking sea weed, Laminaria or 

 tangle : this extended dow^n to about 10 fathoms. Below this 

 again was the Coralline Zone, a region in which the ordinary sea- 

 weeds began to disappear and in which the nullipores, that is the 

 Algae with calcareous skeletons, were the characteristic organisms. 

 Beyond this again was a region extending down to an unknown 

 depth in which vegetable life was entirely absent and in which 

 animal life gradually began to disappear. Forbes thought that as 

 we descend the ocean depths to the abysses organisms become 

 more and more modified until in the great depths of the sea 

 life became extinct, or exhibited only " but a few sparks to mark 

 its lingering presence." 



This speculation was made prior to the great oceanographical 

 discoveries of the middle of the nineteenth century. Darwin had 

 just returned from his Beagle cruise, and Sir James Ross was 

 about to sail to the Antarctic with the Ei^ehus and Terror. 

 But even then Sir John Ross had returned from the great Arctic 

 voyage of 1818, and by the successful soundings which he had 

 made in water of over 1000 fathoms, and by the use of the "Deep- 



