32 SEAWEEDS AS BREAKWATERS. 



"I know of few things more surprising," he says, "than 

 to see this plant flourishing amid those great breakers of the 

 western ocean, which no mass of rock, be it ever so hard, 

 can long resist " and yet it seems that, " the stem is round, 

 shiny, and smooth, and seldom has a diameter of so much 

 as an inch." "The beds of this seaweed, even when not of 

 great breadth, make excellent natural floating break-waters. 

 It is quite curious to see in an exposed harbour, how soon 

 the waves from the open sea, as they travel through the 

 straggling stems, sink in height, and pass into smooth water. 

 The number of living creatures of all orders whose existence 

 depends on the kelp, is wonderful. A great volume might 

 be written describing the inhabitants of one of these beds of 

 seaweed. Often as I examined a branch of kelp, I never 

 failed to discover animals of new and curious structures. I 

 can only compare these great aquatic forests of the south- 

 ern hemisphere with the terrestrial ones in the intertropical 

 regions. Amid the leaves of this plant numerous species of 

 fish live, which nowhere else could find food or shelter; with 

 their destruction, the many cormorants and other fishing 

 birds, otters, seals, and porpoises, would soon perish also ; and 

 lastly the Fuegan savage " (who feeds upon them) " would 

 perhaps soon cease to exist." * 



The wonderful works of Nature in the vegetable 

 kingdom have always excited the interest and admir- 

 ation of mankind on shore, but people's attention is 

 more rarely drawn to the little known, but no less 

 wonderful productions in the bosom of the mighty 

 deep. 



Here for instance, we see an apparently frail and 

 slender plant able to do what the greatest break- 

 waters erected by human hands, out of masses of solid 

 stone, would be often totally unable to effect. It 



* A Naturalist's Voyage round the World, in //.J/..S'. Beagle, by 

 Charles Darwin, 1 4th edition 1879, pp. 239 240. 



