CHAPTER II 

 THE OPEN SEA 



Contrast between Shore and Open Sea The Floating Sea- 

 Meadows The Animals of the Open Sea Sea-Deserts 

 Swimmers and Drifters The Whale as a Great Bundle 

 of Fitnesses The Story of the Storm Petrel Open- Sea 

 Insects Turtles Sea-Snakes and Sea-Serpents Fit- 

 nesses of Open-Sea Drifters The Story of the Floating 

 Barnacle Hunger and Love in the Open Sea The Open 

 Sea as a Nursery. 



BY the open sea, naturalists mean the well- 

 lighted surface-waters well away from 

 the shallow shelf around the islands and conti- 

 nents. It is not the mere surface of the water, 

 it includes all the zones of water through which 

 the light penetrates freely ; and that, we must 

 remember, is much farther than at the coast 

 where the waves stir up the sea-floor and bring 

 so many fine particles into suspension in the 

 water, that much of the light is stopped. In 

 the upper levels of the open sea or pelagic 

 haunt, there are multitudinous minute plants 



mingled with the animal tenants ; deeper down 



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