SUBMARINE LANDSCAPES. 21 
marine life, when we consider that those vast numbers, beyond 
all human conception, occupy after all only a small part of the 
green-coloured ocean which extends over twenty or thirty 
thousand square miles! It is here that the giant whale of the 
north finds his richest pasture-grounds, which at the same time 
invite man to foliow on his track. A small red crustacean 
(Cetochilus australis) which forms very extensive banks in the 
Pacific, and in the middle of the Atlantic about 40°S. lat., affords 
a similar supply of food to the whales frequenting those seas, 
and exposes them to the same dangers. 
When the sea is perfectly clear and transparent, it allows the 
eye to distinguish objects at a very great depth. Near Mindora, 
in the Indian Ocean, the spotted corals are plainly visible under 
twenty-five fathoms of water. The crystalline clearness of the 
Caribbean sea excited the admiration of Columbus, who in the 
pursuit of his great discoveries ever retained an open eye for 
the beauties of nature. “In passing over these splendidly adorned 
grounds,” says Schopf, “where marine life shows itself in an 
endless variety of forms, the boat, suspended over the purest 
erystal, seems to float in the air, so that a person unaccustomed 
to the scene easily becomes giddy. On the clear sandy bottom 
appear thousands of sea-stars, sea-urchins, molluscs, and fishes 
of a brilliancy of colour unknown in our temperate seas. Fiery 
red, intense blue, lively green, and golden yellow perpetually 
vary ; the spectator floats over groves of sea-plants, gorgonias, 
corals, aleyoniums, flabellums, and sponges, that afford no less 
delight to the eye, and are no less gently agitated by the heaving 
waters, than the most beautiful garden on earth when a gentle 
breeze passes through the waving boughs.” 
With equal enthusiasm De Quatrefages expatiates on the 
beauties of the submarine landscapes on the coast of Sicily. 
“The surface of the waters, smooth and even like a mirror, 
enabled the eye to penetrate to an incredible depth, and to 
recognise the smallest objects. Deceived by this wonderful 
transparency, it often occurred during my first excursions, that I 
wished to seize some annelide or medusa, which seemed to swim 
but a few inches from the surface. Then the boatman smiled, 
took a net fastened to a long pole, and, to my great astonishment, 
plunged it deep into the water before it could attain the object 
which I had supposed to be within my reach. The admirable 
