240 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN. 



Soundings by other Nations, «$• 676. — Contrivances for Deep Soundings, 678. — Clock- 

 work, 679.— Torpedo, 680.— Magnetic Telegraph, 681.— The Myths of the Sea, 

 683.— Attempts to Sound, 688.— The Observatory Plan for Sounding, 690.— Prac- 

 tical Difficulties, 692. — Oceanic Circulation, 695. — Law of Plummet's Descent, 698. 

 — Brooke's Sounding Apparatus, 700. — Greatest Depths yet reached, 701. — Speci- 

 mens from the Pacific, 702. 



673. "We dive," says Sclileiden,* "into the liquid crvstal of 

 the Indian Ocean, and it opens to us the most wondrous enchant- 

 ments of the fairy tales of our childhood's dreams. The strangely 

 branching thickets hear living flowers. Dense masses of JMean- 

 drinas and Astr^as contrast with the leafy, cup-shaped expansions 

 of the Explanarias, the variously-ramified ]\Iadrepores, 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 Retipores, resembling the most delicate 

 ivory carvings. Close by wave the yellow and lilac fans, perfo- 

 rated 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 Es- 

 charas adhere like mosses and lichens to the branches of the cor- 

 als ; the yellow, green, and purple-striped Limpets cling like mon- 

 strous cochineal insects upon their trunks. Like gigantic cactus- 

 blossoms, sparkling in the most ardent colors, the Sea Anemones 

 expand their crowns of tentacles upon the broken rocks, or more 



* "The Plant." 



