98 



SEA AND LAND 



an imperfect image of 



^'Vvi*"*'- 









Figure of a Free Polyp Comrmunl'ty, re- 

 lated to the Sea Fans 



Each little serration on the leaflets 

 of the frond-like body is a separate 

 individual. 



the swiftness with which the translation 

 ^roes on in the sea. 



The movements of the organic 

 machinery in the deeper seas, unlike 

 those of the land, are unaffected by 

 the process of seasons. In the shal- 

 low water next the shore the sum- 

 mer's heat and winter's cold have 

 some effect upon their tenants. In 

 winter, at least in high latitudes, 

 fishes, with rare exceptions, especially 

 the schooling species, desert the 

 shores, and many mollusks migrate 

 into deeper waters ; but in the pro- 

 founder sea, where neither day nor 

 night, summer or winter, brings any 

 pause to the contest of life or any 

 change in its conditions from age 

 to age since these abyssal regions 

 became first tenanted by organisms — 

 the contest has been without any of 

 these pauses of the winter sleep, 

 which on the land is evident, even in 

 the tropics as well as in high lati- 

 tudes. 



This continuity in the organic 

 history of marine creatures makes it 

 possible for a number of singular 

 communities of animals to develop 

 in its waters, the like of which are 

 unknown in the regions which are 



