162 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



or three degrees of latitude is mainly due to small 

 medusae and nudibranchiate molluscs Many thousands 

 of square miles must literally run riot with life, since the 

 coloured waters we speak of are calculated to form one- 

 fourth of the sea between the 74th and 80th parallels/ 



All of these animated beings tell of vegetation, for this 

 supplies the primary food by which they are sustained. It 

 is so on land : there we have herbivori and carnivori 

 animals feeding on the vegetable productions of the earth, 

 and beasts and birds, and insects innumerable which prey 

 upon these, but they, too, are sustained by the grass and 

 the herb of the field, for by these have their prey been 

 nourished, and like to life on earth is life on the sea. 



' On the Greenland coast/ says in continuation the writer 

 I have quoted, ' where the transparency of the waters is 

 so great that the bottom and every object upon it are 

 clearly discernible, even at a depth of eighty fathoms, the 

 ocean-bed is covered with gigantic tangles, so as to remind 

 the spectator of the ocean-gardens of the Tropical Zone. 

 Alcyonians, sertularians, acidians, nullipores, mussels, and 

 a variety of other sessile animals incrust every stone, or 

 congregate in every fissure and hollow of the rocky ground. 

 A dead seal or fish flung into the sea is soon converted 

 into a skeleton, it is said, by the myriads of small crusta- 

 ceans which infest these northern waters, and, like the 

 ants in the equatorial forests, perform the part of scaven- 

 gers of the deep.'* 



* He adds : ' It is evident from the observations of Professor Forbes, that depth has 

 a very considerable influence in the distribution of marine life. From the surface to 

 the depth of 1380 feet eight distinct zones or regions have been mapped out in the sea, 

 each of which has its own vegetation and inhabitants ; and the number of these regions 

 must now be increased, after the astonishing results of the deep-sea soundings of Dr 

 Carpenter and Professor Wyville Thomson. The changes in the different zones are not 

 abrupt ; some of the creatures of an under region always appear before those of the 

 region above it vanish ; and though there are a few species the same in some of the eight 

 zones, only two are common to all. It is to be observed that those near the surface 

 have forms and colours analogous to the inhabitants of southern latitudes, while those 

 at a greater depth arc analogous to the animals of northern waters. Hence, in the sea, 

 depth corresponds with latitude, as height does on land. Mrs Somerville adds, in lan- 

 guage of much terseness, that the extent of the geographical distribution of any species 

 is proportioned to the depth at which it lives. Consequently, those which live near the 

 surface are less widely dispersed than those inhabiting deep water. 



' The larger and more active inhabitants of the seas obey the same laws with the rest 

 of creation, though their provinces, or regions, are in some instances very extensive . 



