ri PREFACE. 



deepest blue to a pale reddish -brown. Brilliant rose, yellow, or peach- 

 coloured Nullipores overgrow the decaying masses : they themselves 

 being interwoven with the pearl-coloured plates of the Retipores, 

 rivalling the most delicate ivory carvings. Close by wave the yellow 

 and lilac Sea-fans (Gorgonia), perforated like delicate trellis- work. 

 The bright sand of the bottom is covered with a thousand strange 

 forms of sea-urchins and star-fishes. The leaf-like Flustrde and Escharse 

 adhere like mosses and lichens to the branches of coral the yellow, 

 green, and purple-striped limpets clinging to their trunks. The sea- 

 anemones expand their crowns of tentacula upon the rugged rocks or 

 on flat sands, looking like beds of variegated ranunculuses, or sparkling 

 like gigantic cactus blossoms, shining with brightest colours. 



" Around the branches of the coral shrubs play the humming-birds 

 of the ocean : little fishes sparkling with red or blue metallic glitter, 

 or gleaming in golden green or brightest silvery lustre ; like spirits of 

 the deep, the delicate milk-white jelly-fishes float softly through the 

 charmed world. Here gleam the violet and gold-green Isabelle, and 

 the flaming yellow, black, and vermilion-striped Coquette, as they 

 chase their prey ; there the band-fish shoots snake-like through the 

 thicket, resembling a silvery ribbon glittering with rose and azure 

 hue. Then come the fabulous cuttle-fishes, in all the diaphanous 

 colours of the rainbow, but with no definite outline. 



" When day declines, with the shades of night this fantastic garden 

 is lighted up with renewed splendour. Millions of microscopic medusae 

 and crustaceans, like so many glowing sparks, dance through the 

 gloom. The Sea-pen waves in a greenish phosphorescent light. 

 Whatever is beautiful or wondrous among fishes, Echinoderms, jelly- 

 fishes and polypi and molluscs, is crowded into the warm and crystal 

 waters of the Tropical ocean." 



It is stated on the Title-page that " THE OCEAN WORLD " is chiefly 

 translated from M. Louis Figuier's two most recent works. In justice 

 to that gentleman, we must explain this statement. The History of the 

 Ocean is to a large extent, but not wholly, compiled from " La Terre 

 et les Mers," one of the volumes of M. Figuier's " Tableau de la 

 Nature ;" but the larger portion of the work is a free translation of 



