8% THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



INSIGNIFICANCE OF MAN COMPARED WITH THE 

 OCEAN. 



The reader has now been introduced to a little 

 museum of submarine wonders, by a guide who has 

 sometimes perhaps trespassed on his patience, but 

 who has aimed, at least, to be instructive without 

 being dull. A general idea of the form of the ocean- 

 bed, and of some of the mysteries concealed in the 

 abyss of waters, has, we may hope, been clearly 

 given. Aided by the apparatus of the diver, we 

 have been able to enjoy a few moments of submarine 

 life, and to advance some steps in the more frequented 

 valleys of the ocean landscape. Is the author to 

 blame if he cannot find the means for extending 

 these excursions still further — if he cannot defy the 

 very laws of nature— set at naught the pressure of 

 800 atmospheres, under which are hardening the 

 marvellous stratifications upon which our descendants 

 will live and flourish — see without light, and surpass 

 in agility and force the monsters who would make 

 us their prey? While we are anxious that these 

 lacunai in ^ur knowledge of the sea should be filled 



