440 M. Sars on the Distribution of Animal Life 



And so of tlie other regions or zones wliieh (Ersted speaks 

 of. My experience distinctly contradicts his theory. I find 

 white, yellow, green, brown, and red animals in them all; or, 

 in other words, there is in general no prevailing colour in any 

 of them, nor any distinct connexion between the colours of 

 animals and the belts which they inhabit, with the exception 

 of what I shall now mention. 



It is quite true, as Forbes and others since have remarked, 

 that the brightest and most variegated colours, stripes, and 

 bands, in greatest number and intensity, are oftenest found 

 in animals near the shore, in the laminarian zone (which ex- 

 tends from low-water mark to about 10-20 fathoms, and in 

 certain localities even to 30-40 fathoms), such as many Nudi- 

 branchs, Patella pellucida, Trochus, and many more ; whereas, 

 on the other hand, animals in the deeper belts are generally of 

 one colour, not variegated. 



Again, although, as has been said, there seems to be no 

 universally prevailing colour for each zone of the sea, yet the 

 researches on our coast have distinctly shown that the greater 

 number of animals at the greatest depths there touched (200-300 

 and in some cases 450 fathoms) either are red or white in co- 

 lour. So that it appears, regarding colours as depending in a 

 general way on light, that of the coloured rays of which the 

 sun's light is composed, the red, as a rule, penetrates deepest 

 — much deeper than (Ersted supposed, since he fixes its limits 

 at 500 feet (83 fathoms), beyond which he places his region of 

 white animals, which, so far as researches on our coast tell us, 

 are rarely or never found at that depth. 



I have already on a former occasion [l. c. p. 60) stated that the 

 creature Lima excavata from 300 fathoms depth is of as lively a 

 bright red as L. Loscombti smd L. Mans, which both live in shal- 

 low water. As some further examples of the frequency of the red 

 colour, the following larger forms may serve : — Funiculina 

 finmarcMca, F. Christit, F. Forbesii, Pennatula borealis, and 

 Goniaster granularis, which are all of a bright-red colour ; 

 among our large corals, there are always some (sometimes, 

 also, polypi) more or less markedly red ; the colour of Ulo- 

 cyathus arcticus from 300 fathoms is quite the same as from 

 100 fathoms (the highest limits of the species), the mouth and 

 interior (primary and secondary) tentacles scarlet or brown- 

 red approaching blood-red, and tlie rest a lighter red, and the 

 folds of the mouth a dark blood-red or brown-red ; further, 

 Fungiacyathus fragilis, Cajmea sanguinea, both our species 

 oi Astrophyton, Aste7'onyx Lovenii, both species of Ophioscolex^ 

 Brisinga, Ar chaster tenuispinus and A. andromeda, Stichojyus 

 natans, Conchoscia borealis, Campylnspis undata, G. costata, 



