GO PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOEOLOGY. 



of these creatures. They were in the form of hollow gelatinous 

 lobes, arranged in groups of five or nine — each lobe having an 

 orange vein down the centre. Thus each animal was formed of 

 an aggregation of lobes, with an orange-coloured vein, or 

 stomach, in every lobe. "Examining," sa3's he, "in the micro- 

 scope a portion of one of the orange veins, apparently the stomach 

 of the creature, it was found to be extraordinarily rich in dia- 

 tomes, and of the most bizarre forms, as stars, Maltese crosses, 

 embossed circles, semicircles, and spirals. The whole stomach 

 could hardly have contained less than seven hundred thousand ; 

 and when we multiply them by the number of lobes, and then 

 by the number of groups, we shall have some idea of the count- 

 less millions of diatomes that go to make a feast for the medusae 

 — some of the softest things in the world thus confounding and 

 devouring the hardest — the flinty-shelled diatomaceae." Each of 

 these " sea-nettles," as the sailors call them, had in his nine 

 stomachs not less, according to this computation, than five or six 

 millions of these mites of flinty shells, the materials of which 

 their inhabitants had collected from the silicious matter which 

 the rains washed out from the valleys, and which the rivers are 

 continuall}^ rolling down to the sea. 



1G2. Tlie ivaters of the sea bring forth — oh how abundantly ! — The 

 medusae have the power of sucking in the sea-water slowly, and 

 of ejecting it again with more or less force. Thus they derive both 

 food and the power of locomotion, for, in the passage of the water, 

 they strain it and collect the little diatomes. Imagine, now, 

 how many medusee-mouthfuls of water there must be in the sea, 

 which, though loaded with diatomes, are never filtered through 

 the stomachs of these creatures ; imagine how many medusas the 

 v/hale must gulp down with ever}^ mouthful ; imagine how deep 

 and thickly the bottom of the sea must, during the process of 

 ages, have become covered with the flinty remains of these little 

 organisms ; now call to mind the command which was given to 

 the waters of the sea on the fifth day of creation ; and then the 

 boasted powers of the imagination are silenced in their very im- 

 potency, and the emotions of wonder, love, and praise take their 

 place. 



163. Contrasts between the climates of land and sea. — The sea has 

 its climates as well as the land. They both change with the 

 latitude ; but one varies with the elevation above, the other 

 with the depression below the sea level. The climates in each 



