XI 



MARINE LIFE 



OF all subjects for research work, the ocean contains 

 the greatest number and forms. Hardly a drop of 

 water but contains some form of life, many of them 

 most beautiful and interesting. The ooze on the bot- 

 tom, many fathoms down, is made up of dead bodies, 

 which are literally raining down toward the bottom 

 in one continuous shower. 



Plankton, or drifting life, is a food in the ocean 

 that bears the same relationship to fish as grass does 

 to grazing animals on shore. If there is a good crop of 

 plankton there are plenty of well-fed fish. 



To work out the life stories of all these forms of 

 life is impossible. They are as countless as the grains 

 of sand on the seashore, so I am going to take one 

 rather unknown and tell just a little of its life story 

 parts I have pictured. 



The Urechis Carpo is a large fat worm about six 

 inches long and one inch or more in diameter. It 

 lives in a U-shaped burrow, some two feet deep in the 

 mud flats near Monterey. It is comparatively easy to 

 raise them from the egg to full grown animals, which 

 is necessary to do in all subjects that are to be pic- 



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