412 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
elegant and firm, often iridescent, fronds of Chondrus crispus ; 
and, lowermost, the thong-weed or Himanthalia lorea.” 
Succeeding the shore-band, or littoral zone, we have the 
region of the great laminaria or tangle forests, or in sandy 
places the waving meadows of zostera, or grass-wrack. It extends 
from the edge of low water to a depth varying in different 
localities, but seldom exceeding fifteen fathoms, and is itself 
divided into sub-regions, marked by belts of differently tinted 
ales. This zone above all others swarms with life, and is the 
chief residence of fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, and invertebrata 
of all classes, remarkable for brightness and variety of colouring. 
“Here,” says Mr. Godwin Austen, “is the chosen haunt of the 
nudibranchiate mollusks, animals of exceedingly delicate texture, 
extraordinary shapes, elegance cf organs, and vividness of paint- 
ing. Their bodies exhibit hues of a brilliancy and intensity 
such as can match the most gorgeous setting of a painter's 
palette. Vermilion red, intense crimson, pale rose, golden 
yellow, luscious orange, rich purple, the deepest and the brightest 
blues, even vivid greens and densest blacks, are common tints, 
separate or combined, disposed in infinite varieties of elegant 
patterns, in this singular tribe. Our handsomest fishes are con- 
eregated here, the wrasses especially, some of which are truly 
gorgeous in their painting. Here are gobies and more curious 
blennies, swimming playfully among these submarine groves. 
Strange worms crawl serpent-like about their roots, and for- 
midable crustacea are the wild beasts who prowl amid their 
intricacies. The old stalks, and the surfaces of the rocky or 
stony ground on which they usually grow, are incrusted like 
the trunks of ancient trees or faces of barren rocks with lichenous 
investments. But whereas in the air these living crusts are 
chiefly if not all of vegetable origin, in the sea they are more 
often constructed out of animal organisms. Some of them are 
sponges, others are true zoophytes, others polyzoa or bryozoa, 
beings that have proved to belong to the class of mollusks, 
however unlike they may seem to shellfish. 
“Jn the middle and lower part of the Laminarian region 
around our shores the tangles become less plentiful as we 
descend, and at last become exceptional and disappear. But 
other sea-weeds are very abundant, especially those that delight 
in red or purple hues. Tender sea-mosses, exquisitely delicate 
