THE OCEAN AND ITS LIFE. *.>7 



life in the boundless world of the ocean. Lions, tigers, 

 and wolves, reach a gigantic size in its vast caverns, and, 

 day after day, destroy whole generations of smaller ani- 

 mals. Polypi and medusae, in countless numbers, spread 

 their nets, catching the thoughtless radiati by tens of 

 thousands, and the huge whale swallows, at one gulp, 

 millions of minute, but living creatures. The swordfish 

 and the sea-lion hunt the elephant and the rhinoceros of 

 the Pacific, and tiny parasites dart upon the tunny fish, 

 to dwell in myriads in his thick layers of fat. All are 

 hunting, killing, murdering ; but the strife is silent, no 

 war-cry is heard, no burst of anguish disturbs the eternal 

 silence, no shouts of triumph rise up through the crystal 

 waves to the world of light. The battles are fought in 

 deep, still secresy ; only now and then the parting waves 

 disclose the bloody scene for an instant, or the dying 

 whale throws his enormous carcass high into the air, 

 driving the water up in lofty columns, capped with foam, 

 and tinged with blood. 



Ceaseless as that warfare is, it does not leave the ocean's 

 depths a waste, a sceiV* of desolation. On the contrary, 

 we find that the sea, the most varied and the most won- 

 derful part of creation, where nature still keeps some of 

 her profoundest secrets, is teeming with life. "Things in- 

 numerable, both great and small, are there," It contains, 

 especially, a most diversified and exuberant abundance of 

 animal life, from the microscopic infusoria, in inconceivable 

 numbers, up to those colossal forms which, free from the 

 incumbrance of weight, are left free to exert the whole 

 of their giant power for their enjoyment. Where the 



