CAEL VON LINNE AS A GEOLOGIST NATHORST. » 737 



marine channels and in some places on the shores, so that this entire 

 lime rock is nothing but a cemetery of as many dead animals as there 

 are grains in drift sand. * * * ^Mien we now further consider 

 how so many strange animals have come to be buried here, animals 

 that are now scarcely to be seen in Europe, we meet with a new 

 argument which also requires considerable reflection. The Testacese 

 or all the genera of mussels that live on the sea bottom, are divided 

 into the Littoralia and Pelagica. Shell collectors call those mussels 

 and shell animals Littorales which do not live in the deep, but only 

 keep close to the shore, so that their shells are cast up on the shores 

 as soon as they die and perish. Hence these shells are common in 

 natural-history collections. On the other hand, Pelagiei are those 

 shell animals that exist in the depths of the sea and never come near 

 the shores, a reason why their shells are very difficult to obtain. 

 The depths of the sea are mostly barren and covered with sand or 

 corals, with few fishes and little fauna or flora, for where there are 

 no plants there are few of the worms and fishes which live on them. 

 Thus there is but one plant that can grow at the greatest depths, and 

 that is the Sargasso^ of which greater quantities are found than of 

 any other plant in the world. It floats on the water and sticks 

 together, so that the sea at a distance resembles a green meadow, and 

 under this are to be found the strangest creatures and mussels, or 

 Testacea pelagica^ which, as they successively grow up and die, drop 

 their shells on the bottom and fill it up. Most of the Testacea in 

 the mountain we have mentioned are the Pelagica, and thej^ must 

 have originated where the Sargasso grew, but how they have come to 

 be in this place is a harder problem to solve. Most people say that 

 the shells have been brought hither in the deluge, and that hence 

 they were Avitnesses of this Avonderful alteration of the earth. But 

 those who say so seem to me to be very little at home in mathematics, 

 for how could the surging waters have thrown the shells a distance 

 of several thousand miles to a certain place and then place above 

 them the other earth strata in such regular order? If these phe- 

 nomena are sufficiently considered one must necessarily admit that 

 the earth must have been covered by the sea, and that Sargasso must 

 have grown here under which these creatures lived and died, where- 

 upon finally, after the water had been reduced and the Sargasso 

 driven away, gravel must have been cast up by the waves in new 

 ridges on the shore and then coalesced into stone. * * * 



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As has been stated above, little was known at the time in question 

 concerning the deep-sea fauna or of the manner in which shells, 

 mussels, and other animals are distributed on the sea bottom, and 

 * * * it is not to be wondered at that Linne, who in this respect 



