THE NORWEGIAN SEAS. 137 



trace of vegetation has disappeared in the rigorous 

 climate, and the frosty sea nourishes no sea-weed in 

 its bosom. The same law appears to prevail in the 

 depths of the ocean ; for, as we descend into its pro- 

 found recesses, vegetable life ceases at a moderate 

 depth ; while from the recesses to which no ray of 

 light has ever struggled, Foraminifera, Infusoria, 

 and other classes of animal existences, are brought up 

 by the sounding-line in vast profusion. 



Sir Arthur de Capell Broke has drawn an interest- 

 ing picture of the singularly transparent sea on the 

 coast of Norway. "As we passed slowly," he observes, 

 " over the surface, the bottom, which here was in 

 general a white sand, was clearly visible, with its 

 minutest objects, where the depth was from twenty 

 to twenty-five fathoms. During the whole course of 

 the tour I made, nothing appeared to me so extra- 

 ordinary as the inmost recesses of the deep, unveiled 

 to the eye. The surface of the ocean was unruffled 

 by the slightest breeze, and the gentle splashing of 

 the oars scarcely disturbed it. Hanging over the gun- 

 wale of the boat, with wonder and delight I gazed on 

 the slowly moving scene below. Where the bottom 

 was sandy, the different kinds of Asterias, Echinus, 

 and even the smallest shells, appeared at that great 

 depth conspicuous to the eye ; and the water seemed, 

 in some measure, to have the effect of a magnifier, by 

 enlarging the objects like a telescope, and bringing 

 them seemingly nearer. Now, creeping along, we 

 saw, far beneath, the rugged sides of a mountain 



