164 THE CALL OF THE SEA 



almost impossible to see it unless it moved. It 

 has peculiar points and spikes which further in- 

 tensify the resemblance. Lying on the great 

 leaves are numbers of slug-like creatures, " shells " 

 without shells, tinted green, safe in this protection 

 from nearly all intruders. But the most remark- 

 able resemblance is seen in a fish called the kelp 

 fish. It is about a foot in length, the exact colour 

 of the kelp, with a long continuous dorsal fin, 

 frilled exactly like the edge of the leaf. Did this 

 fish dart about, or comport itself as other fishes, it 

 would at once be observed, but it does nothing of 

 the kind ; it lies at the bottom, or near it, standing 

 literally upon its head, with its tail extending 

 upward with the shorter kelp leaves, and in this 

 position, hanging in the gardens, waves to and fro 

 with every swell that sways the forest of algffi. 



C. F. Holder. 



The Bottom of the Sea ^> <:> 

 (From Viiigi Milk Lieues sous les Afers) 



|UI ! un taillis d'arbres morts, sans feuilles. 



O' 



sans sdve, arbres mindralisds sous I'action 

 des eaux, et que dominaient qh. et \h. des pins gigan- 

 tesques. C'dtait comme une houill^re encore 

 debout, tenant pars ses racines au sol efibndrd, et 

 dont la ramure, k la maniere des fines ddcoupures 



