THE OCEAN AND ITS LIFE. 80 



haste ; they saw the white foam sink down into the dark, 

 gloomy gulf; they heard the thundering roar and the hid- 

 eous hissing below ; the waters rose and the waters fell, 

 but the bold, daring seaman was never seen again. 



Legend recites the fearful tale, and the poet repeats it 

 in melodious strains. But it is neither fable nor fiction. 

 The same dread mystery broods yet over the waters, and 

 little is even now known of the great deep, where the 

 hungry ocean demands still its countless victims. For the 

 calm of the sea is a treacherous rest, and under the de- 

 ceitful mirror-like smoothness reign eternal warfare and 

 strife. Oceanus holds not, as of old, the Earth, his spouse, 

 in quiet, loving embrace; our sea-god is a god of battles, 

 and wrestles and wrangles in never-ceasing struggle with 

 the firm continent. Even when apparently calm and slum- 

 bering, he is moving in restless action, for "there is sorrow 

 on the sea, it cannot be quiet." Listen, and you will hear 

 the gentle beating of playful waves against the snowy 

 sands of the beach ; look again, and you will see the 

 gigantic mass breathe and heave like a living being. No 

 quiet, no sleep, is allowed to the great element. As the 

 little brook dances merrily over rock and root, never rest- 

 ing day and night, so the great ocean, also, knows no 

 leisure, no repose. 



It is not merely, however, that the weight of the agi- 

 tated atmosphere presses upon the surface of the vast 

 ocean, and moves it now with the gentle breath of the 

 zephyr, and now with the fierce power of the tempest. 

 Even when the waters seem lashed into madness by the 

 raging tornado, or rise in daring rebellion under the sud- 



