164 THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



of night spread in the deep waters, the exquisite garden 

 which they cover is lighted up with new splendours. 

 The medusae and the microscopic crustaceans shine 

 in the darkness like fairy-stars. The pennatula, which 

 during the day is of a reddish cinnabar colour, floats 

 in a phosphorescent light ; every corner of the sea- 

 bottom sends out its ray of colour ; objects that look 

 brown and dull in the universal radiation of daylight, 

 now shine with the most charming green, yellow, and 

 red light ; and to complete the marvels of this en- 

 chanted night-scene, the large silver disc of the moon 

 of the sea {Ortliagoriscus mola, commonly called the 

 moon-fish), moves softly through the whirling vortices 

 of little stars. The most luxuriant vegetation of the 

 tropics fails to develope so much wealth of form, and 

 lags far behind the magnificent gardens of the ocean, 

 composed almost entirely of animals, for variety and 

 brilliance of colour. That marine fauna is not less 

 remarkable for its extraordinary development than 

 the abundant vegetation of the bed of the sea in the 

 temperate zones. All that is beautiful, marvellous, 

 or extraordinary in the great classes of fish, of echino- 

 dermata, of medusae, of polypi, and of shell-covered 

 molluscs bred in the warm and limpid waters of the 

 tropical ocean, repose there on the white sands, at- 

 tach themselves to the rough rocks, or (should the 

 place they covet be already occupied) fasten like 



