THE DEPTHS OP THE OCEAN. 303 



written upon their wings in characters as legible and enduring as 

 any with which she has ever engraved the history of geological 

 events upon the tablet of the rock. 



555. TIic Andes older than the Dead Sea as an inland water. — The 

 waters of Lake Titicaca, which receives the drainage of the great 

 inland basin of the Andes, are only brackish, not salt. Hence 

 we may infer that this lake has not been standing long enough 

 to become briny, like the waters of the Dead Sea ; consequentl}-, 

 it belongs to a more recent period. On the other hand, it will 

 also be interesting to hear that my friend Captain Lynch informs 

 me that, in his exploration of the Dead Sea, he saw what he took 

 to be the dry bed of a river that once flowed from it. And thus 

 we have two more links, stout and strong, to add to the chain of 

 circumstantial evidence going to sustain the testimony of this 

 strange and fickle witness which I have called up from the sea to 

 testify in this presence concerning the works of Nature, and to 

 tell us which be the older — the Andes, watching the st-ars with 

 their hoary heads, or the Dead Sea, sleeping upon its ancient beds 

 of crystal salt. 



CHAPTEE XIIL 



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



560. Submarine scenery. — " We dive," says Schleiden,* " into the 

 liquid crystal of the Indian Ocean, and it opens to us the most 

 wondrous enchantments, reminding us of fairy tales in child- 

 hood's dreams. The strangely branching thickets bear living 

 flowers. Dense masses of meandrinas and astreeas contrast with 

 the leafy, cup-shaped expansions of the explanaries,'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 colouring surpasses every- 

 thing ; vivid green alternates with brown or yellow; rich tints 

 of purple, from pale red-brown to the deepest blue. Brilliant 

 i'<jsy, yellow, or peach-coloured Nullipores overgrow the decaying 

 masses, and are themselves interwoven with the pearl-coloured 

 plates of the Eetipores, resembling the most delicate ivory 

 carvings. Close by wave the yellow and lilac fans, perforated 

 * " The Plant." 



