NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



Origin. As to the origin of the Deep-Sea animals, 

 the evidence points to the conclusion that the 

 abysses have been persistently colonized age after 

 age by migrants from the shore and from the " Mud- 

 Line." There is a marked resemblance between 

 certain representatives of the Deep-Sea fauna in a 

 given region and certain representatives of the 

 nearest shore fauna. 



The Wonder of the Deep Sea. A knowledge of 

 the Deep Sea has cut into human life ; it has been of 

 value to mankind, practically, in connexion with 

 laying cables (and that has meant much) ; intel- 

 lectually, for it has been an exercise-ground for the 

 scientific investigator ; emotionally, for there is 

 perhaps no more striking modern gift to the imagina- 

 tion than the picture which explorers have given 

 of the eerie, cold, dark, calm, silent, plantless, 

 monotonous, but thickly peopled world of the Deep 

 Sea. 



Useful, stimulating, and wonderful our know- 

 ledge of the Deep Sea is, but what is the signific- 

 ance of the facts ? We must try to realize that the 

 Deep Sea is an integral part of a larger whole. Just 

 as the making of the great " deeps " was connected 

 with the raising of great mountains, so the abyssal 

 fauna is wrapped up with the whole vital economy 

 of the Earth. For it is the overflow basin of the 

 great fountain of life whose arch is sunlit. It is 

 necessary to the wholesomeness of the ocean. It is 

 the universal clearing-house. 



Perhaps we go a little deeper still when we 

 recognize that life, which will not be gainsaid, has 



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