THE CORALLINE ZONE 413 
in form and colouring, abound. Where none of these ere 
very plentiful, we often find the coral-weed or nullipore is 
vast quantities, and assuming many strange modifications of 
form. Among these vegetable corals numbers of shells and 
articulate animals delight to live, and probably not a few feed 
upon their stony fronds. The Lima, a shellfish related to the 
scallop, gathers the broken branches by means of prehensile 
tentacles, and constructs for itself a comfortable nest lined with 
a woven cloth of byssal threads. Numerous fishes resort to 
these rugged pastures in order to deposit their spawn among 
the gnarled branchlets.” 
To the laminarian succeeds the coralline zone, extending 
in most places some thirty fathoms or more. Plants, indeed, 
are rare, but here the horny plant-like sertularias love to rear 
their graceful feathery branches, and form miniature gardens of 
fairy-like delicacy and beauty; and here car- 
nivorous mollusks, whelks above all, prowl in 
great numbers. Bivalves of remarkable elegance, 
especially clams and scallops, are found buried 
in multitudes beneath its gravels and muddy 
sands; and no less plentifully congregate the 
spider-crabs, with many other peculiar crusta- 
ceans. As a natural consequence of this well- 
furnished table, fishes abound, and many of 
our deep sea and white fisheries owe their value Whelk. 
to the zoological features of the coralline zone. 
Last and lowest of our regions of submarine existence is that 
of deep-sea corals, so named on account of the great stony 
zoophytes characteristic of it in the oceanic seas of Europe. 
Many sea-stars and sea-urchins are likewise found in this region, 
in the depths of which the number of peculiar creatures is few, 
yet sufficient to give it a marked character. 
