The Mighty Deep 



The very idea of a life spent always in swim- 

 ming or floating through boundless depths, never 

 touching firm ground, having no kind of home or 

 retreat, suggests vagabondage, and sounds dis- 

 consolate. 



It may be that the difficulty is at least partly 

 met by those great floating banks of living 

 creatures which are often found. 



Diatom-Banks have been already spoken of. 

 But other animals of larger growth also band to- 

 gether, forming vast companies. To each indi- 

 vidual in such a congeries the Floating Bank 

 would be a home. It would matter little to 

 that individual whether the bank as a whole 

 floated here or drifted there, whether it rose 

 at night to the surface of the sea, or whether 

 in daytime it sank lower to escape from the 

 sun's glare. 



Many such banks of life belong strictly to the 

 Surface Class rather than to the Intermediate. 

 But the want of a home applies equally to all 

 creatures who live a free and roving life in the 

 Ocean, unattached to shore or to sea-bed, whether 

 they live above or below the three-hundred fathom 

 limit. 



Another puzzling question has been as to how 

 deep-sea creatures are fed. 



192 



