304 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



§ 560-575. — THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN. 



560. ''We dive," says Schleiden,* "into the liquid crystal of 

 Submarine scenery, the Indian Ocean, and it opens to us the most won- 

 drous enchantments, reminding us of fairy tales in childhood's 

 dreams. The strangely branching thickets bear living flowers. 

 Dense masses of meandrinas and astrseas contrast with the leafy, 

 cup-shaped expansions of the explanarias, the variously -ramified 

 Madrepores, which are now spread out like fingers, now rise in 

 trunk-like branches, and now display the most elegant array of 

 interlacing branches. The coloring surpasses every thing ; vivid 

 green alternates with brown or yellow ; rich tints of purple, from 

 pale red-brown to the deepest blue. Brilliant rosy, yellow, or 

 peach-colored Nullipores overgrow the decaying masses, and are 

 themselves interwoven with the pearl-colored plates of the Reti- 

 pores, resembling the most delicate ivory carvings. Close by 

 wave the yellow and lilac fans, perforated like trellis-work, of the 

 Gorgonias. The clear sand of the bottom is covered with the 

 thousand strange forms and tints of the sea-urchins and star-fishes. 

 The leaf-like flustras and escharas adhere like mosses and lich- 

 ens to the branches of the corals ; the yellow, green, and purple- 

 striped limpets cling like monstrous cochineal insects upon their 

 trunks. Like gigantic cactus-blossoms, sparkling in the most ar- 

 dent colors, the sea anemones expand their crowns of tentacles 

 upon the broken rocks, or more modestly embellish the flat bot- 

 tom, looking like beds of variegated ranunculuses. Around the 

 blossoms of the coral shrubs play the humming-birds of the ocean, 

 little fish sparkling with red or blue metallic glitter, or gleaming 

 in golden green, or in the brightest silvery lustre. Softly, like 

 spirits of the deep, the delicate milk-white or bluish bells of the 

 jelly-fishes float through this charmed world. Here the gleaming 

 violet and gold-green Isabelle, and the flaming yellow, black, and 

 vermilion-striped coquette, chase their prey ; there the band-fish 



* "The Plant." 



