THE POWER OF SUNLIGHT ill 



so different from life on land, that we are only beginning 

 to understand a little about it. 



So far as we know, however, the creatures there also 

 which belong to the Animal Kingdom are not able, 

 generally, to get their food straight from air or water 

 or soil. They too must — generally — wait until it has 

 been worked up for them by beings that belong to the 

 Vegetable Kingdom. Only we cannot venture to say 

 that with them it is always so. 



You may smile at the idea of a fish having to do with 

 air or with soil. But there is air in the sea, or a fish 

 could not breathe. And there are soils at the bottom 

 of the ocean, where hordes of animals live ; many and 

 curious kinds of soil. 



On dry land animals feed largely on vegetables. But 

 in the sea very few fishes feed on seaweeds. Just a 

 small number do ; while by far the greater number live 

 entirely on animal-food. 



The strong devour those that are weaker; and the 

 weaker prey on those that are weaker still. So, stage 

 by stage, we get down from the larger inhabitants of the 

 ocean to those that are known as the " lower animals " 

 of that vast region. Numberless hordes of small live 

 things throng the middle and upper reaches; many of 

 them of the Crayfish kind ; very many only the young 

 of bigger creatures dwelling below. And these serve as 

 food for teeming millions of fishes ; perhaps especially for 

 such as herrings, which again nourish the larger kinds. 



And on what do these " lower animals " feed — ^these 

 multitudes of little restless beings ? Do they depend on 

 vegetable growths? 



