SEA-WRACK 19 



always present, and the tragedy of the immedi- 

 ate future looms large. 



The weed along the coast is honest growth, 

 with promise of permanence. The great float- 

 ing Sargasso Sea is permanent only in appear- 

 ance, and when finally the big masses drift, with 

 all their lesser, attendant freight into the gulf 

 stream, then life becomes a sham. There can 

 be no more fruiting or sustained development 

 of gas-filled berries. No eggs of fish or crabs 

 will hatch, no new generation of sea-horses or 

 mollusks appear among the stems. Bravely the 

 fronds float along, day by day the hundred lit- 

 tle lives breathe and feed and cling to their drift- 

 ing home. But soon the gas berries decay and 

 the fronds sink lower and lower. As the current 

 flows northward, and the water becomes colder 

 the crabs move less rapidly, the fish nibble less 

 eagerly at the bits of passing food. Soon a 

 sea-horse lets go and falls slowly downward, to 

 be snapped up at once or to sink steadily into 

 the eternal dusk and black night of deeper 

 fathoms. Soon the plant follows and like all its 

 chilled pensioners, dies. The supply from the 

 Sargasso Sea seems unfailing, but one's sym- 

 pathies are touched by these little assemblages. 



