t>8 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK UK NATURE. 



rocky cliffs of Spitzbergen and the inhospitable shores of 

 Victoria land refuse to nourish even the simplest, hum- 

 blest lichen, where no reindeer is ever seen, and even the 

 polar bear finds no longer a home, there the sea is still 

 covered \vith fuci and confer vse, and myriads of minute 

 animals crowd its life-sustaining waves. Naturally, the 

 purest spring-water is not more limpid than the water of 

 the ocean ; for it absorbs all colors save that of ultra- 

 marine, which gives it the azure hue vying with the blue 

 of heaven. It varies to be sure, with every gleam of sun- 

 shine, with every passing cloud, and when shallow, it re- 

 flects the color of its bed. But its brightest tints, and 

 strangest colors, are derived from infusoria and plants. In 

 the Arctic Sea, a broad band of opaque olive green passes 

 right through the pure ultramarine ; and off the Arabian 

 coast, we are told, there is a strip of green water so dis- 

 tinctly marked, that a ship has been seen in blue and 

 green water at the same time. The Vermillion Sea of 

 California, has its name from the red color of vast quan- 

 tities of infusoria, and the Red Sea of Arabia changes 

 from delicate pink to deep scarlet, as its tiny inhabitants 

 move in thicker or thinner layers. Other masses of mi- 

 nute creatures tinge the waters round the Maldives black, 

 and that of the Gulf of Guinea, white. 



When Captain Ross, in the Arctic Sea, explored the 

 bottom of the sea, and dropped his lead to a depth of 

 six thousand feet, he still brought up living animalcula; 

 and even at a depth exceeding the height of our loftiest 

 mountains, the water is alive with countless hosts of dimi- 

 nutive phosphoric creatures, which, when attracted to the 



