CL IMA TES O F THE SEA. 1 H 



swallow setting a limit to his enormous appetite. 

 The cachalot (spermaceti whale) finds liimself at 

 home ill warm regions, and there disputes tlie empire 

 of the sea with the terrible shark. The phoca or 

 sea-cow, the porpoise, and the narwhal leave free 

 to the dolphin the equatorial belt of waters, and fix 

 their cantonments in colder regions. Often they fur- 

 nish unhoped-for resources to the adventurous wan- 

 derer in latitudes covered with frost and snow. 



There is an immense difference in the aspects 

 respectively of warm and cold seas. The actors are 

 not the same. The landscape itself presents totally 

 different characters. Numerous plants contribute 

 their graceful presence to adorn the hills and valleys, 

 but (as we observe on land), they are not the same 

 which grace the heights with their long flexible rib- 

 bons, swept by the currents, and which constitute the 

 sea-green meadows in the calm deeps of the ocean. 

 The richest vegetation is found in the temperate 

 zones. There flourish immense forests, even more 

 mysterious than the sacred woods of olden time. 

 Fish, molluscs, crabs, are the happy denizens of these 

 shady retreats. But who can flatter himself that lie 

 is familiar with these haunts ? Do they not rather 

 seem for ever closed against tUe intrusion of man ? 

 Who can presume to fathom the mystery of these 

 immense tracts, denser with foliage than the virgin 



