EXTENSION OF LIFE IN THE OCEAN. 225 



zones towards the equator or the poles. *' It is, more- 

 over, remarkable that the law under whicli the 

 animal kingdom, which more readily adapts itself to 

 surrounding circumstances, becomes more extensively 

 developed than the vegetable kingdom, applies to 

 the ocean as well as to the land. Thus the polar 

 seas abound in whales, seals, fish, and aquatic birds, 

 and are populated by an infinite multitude of inferior 

 animals, when all vegetation has disappeared irom 

 this region of ice and cold. This law is also found 

 lo a})ply as we descend deeper into the ocean, ibr in 

 so doing we discover that vegetable life disappears 

 much sooner than animal life: indeed, in abysses 

 where hardly a ray of light can penetrate, soundings 

 still demonstrate the presence of living infusoria3." 



We know what life does, although we know not 

 what ehe is. There is no region of natural phe- 

 nomena to which this remark applies more forcibly 

 than to the ocean. We there see animals blooming. 

 so to speak, in the most brilliant and varied colours, 

 like flowers, and flowers almost without colour. 



On the other hand, the animals lose their power of 

 motion, and become more allied to the algae them- 

 selves. Modern investigations show that, during tlie 

 first part of their existence, vegetable cells have the 

 motions characteristic of animal life, so that the 

 alg9B might almost be considered as varieties of 



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