292 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS IVIETEOROLOGY. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 



§ 560-575. THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN. 



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

 Submarine scenery. Indian Occan, and it opens to us the most wondrous 

 enchantments, reminding us of fairy tales in childhood's dreams. 

 The strangely branching thickets bear living flowers. Dense 

 masses of meandrinas and astraeas contrast \\dth the leafy, cup- 

 shaped expansions of the explanaries, the variously-ramified Madre- 

 pores, which are now spread out like fingers, now rise in trunk-like 

 branches, and now display the most elegant array of interlacing 

 branches. The colouring surpasses everything ; vivid green alter- 

 nates with brown or yellow ; rich tints of purple, from pale red- 

 broMTi to the deepest blue. Brilliant rosy, yellow, or peach- 

 coloured Nullipores overgrow the decaying masses, and are them- 

 selves interwoven with the pearl-coloured plates of the Eetipores, 

 resembling the most delicate ivory cartings. Close by wave the 

 yellow and lilac fans, perforated hke trellis-work, of the Gorgonias. 

 The clear sand of the bottom is covered mth the thousand strange 

 forms and tints of the sea-urchins and star-fishes. The leaf-like 

 flustras and escharas adhere like mosses and lichens to the branches 

 of the corals ; the yellow, green, and purple-striped limpets cling 

 like monstrous cochineal insects upon their tinmks. Like gigantic 

 cactus-blossoms, sparkling in the most ardent colours, the sea. 

 anemones expand their crowns of tentacles upon the broken rocks, 

 or more modestly embellish the flat bottom, looking like beds of 

 variegated ranunculuses. Aromid 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, hke 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 3'ellow, black, and vermilion-striped 

 coquette, chase their prey ; there the band-fish shoots, snake-like, 

 through the thicket, like a long silver ribbon, glittering with rosy 

 and azure hues. Then come the fabulous cuttle-fishes, decked in all 



* «' Tl.e riant." 



