LIFE IN THE OCEAN. 501 



the iinperceptiblo plant.s which multiply iu the free water. The shore 

 alone is bordered ])y a belt, sometimes quite a meager one, of large 

 plants which, beyond this belt, hardly grow except in shoal water, 

 for the deeper we go the more scanty we find this vegetation. 



Suppose the land had no vegetation beyond a similar zone idong the 

 coasts. Is it not evident that it could feed but a xerj small number of 

 large animals i But to render the parallel perfect it would be neces- 

 sary to suppose the desert surface of the continent more than twice as 

 large, for the ocean covers more than two-thirds of the surface of the 

 globe. The comparison would be rendered still more unfavorable by 

 the fact that at least on (xerman coasts the living marine plants in 

 question are eaten only by a relatively small number of small animals. 



But it is not necessar}^ to dwell upon the matter, for it is clear that 

 the food of the animal world of the sea has to be assured under another 

 form. 



The tangles and the bottom of the shallows are covered with plants 

 extraordinarily small, nearh' comparable to the green algie Avhich 

 clothe the branches of trees, or to mosses. These small plants of 

 rapid growth are much more quickly devoured than the great bundles 

 of fucus (varech) or of laminaria (herbe marine) hard as stone. To 

 make the parallel good it would be necessary to imagine the whole 

 body of the continents to be covered with a thick carpet of Nerdure, 

 for nothing like sandy deserts or mountain solitudes where but a few 

 animals can maintain a precarious existence are to be found in the 

 ocean. There is veg(>tation everywhere, and Schiitt has well said that 

 the sailor who fancies he has pure water under him really sails e\ery- 

 where, even in the blue ocean, in the midst of a rich vegetation. At 

 the same time, this vegetation feeds such an extraordinar}^ nunilxM- of 

 animals that it alwa^'s appears to l)e scanty, l^ecause the vegetable 

 substances newly produced are devoured as fast as they are produced. 



From the point of view of food for animals there is the same diiier- 

 ence l)etween the two categories of marine plants as in our latitudes 

 there is between trees and the soft plants of the fields. Like the trees, 

 the fucus (varech) and the laminaria (les herbes marines) take a great 

 development tiecause they are little interfered with (genes). They 

 strike the eyes more, l)ut in reality it is the meadow which provides 

 food for the herds, meager as it looks. In respect, however, to the con- 

 ditions under which they are found, the fields of the ocean difler from 

 the fields of the land. The former grow plants of the size of the 

 smallest grains of dust distributed through the upper strata of the 

 sea, and prospering the better for being so regularly distributed. This 

 regularity is assured by the incessant stirring of the ocean, and if any 

 irregularity were to occur it would soon disappear, for if the vege- 

 ta])le organisms are relatively few at any one place they will thereby 

 be enabled to utilize the light and the food so much the more to their 



