80 GLAUCUS ; OR, 
three miles of water. But so it is; as we gather 
our curiosities at low-tide mark, or haul the dredge 
a mile or two out at sea, we may allow our fancy 
to range freely out to the westward, and down over 
the subaqueous cliffs of the hundred-fathom line, 
which mark the old shore of the British Isles, or 
rather of a time when Britain and Ireland were 
part of the continent, through water a mile, and 
two, and three miles deep, into total darkness, and 
icy cold, and a pressure which, in the open air, 
would crush any known living creature to a jelly; 
and be certain that we shall find the ocean-floor 
teeming everywhere with multitudinous life, some 
of it strangely like, some strangely unlike, the crea- 
tures which we see along the shore. 
Some strangely like. You may find, for instance, 
among the sea-weed, here and there, a little black 
sea-spider, a Nymphon, who has this peculiarity, that 
possessing no body at all to speak of, he carries 
his needful stomach in long branches, packed inside 
his legs. The specimens which you wiil find will 
probably be half an inch across the legs, An 
