THE OPEN SEA 99 



are calling the Floating Barnacle (Lepas 

 fascicularis] often fastens itself to a small piece 

 of detached seaweed it may be to a feather 

 or a wooden match. Its shell-valves are very 

 lightly built, with little lime in them, and this 

 is well suited for a creature that fixes itself to 

 a light float. But in spite of its lightness of 

 shell, the Floating Barnacle often becomes, as 

 it grows bigger, too heavy for its float, and 

 begins to drag it below the surface. What 

 then does the creature do we wish we 

 understood it better but make a somewhat 

 gelatinous, roundish buoy containing bubbles 

 of gas. This is secreted at the lower end of 

 the attaching stalk, just above the main body, 

 and the self-made buoy enables the barnacle 

 to continue floating at the surface. This is a 

 very pretty adaptation (Fig. 10). 



HUNGER AND LOVE IN THE OPEN SEA 



Hunger is much in evidence in the open sea. 

 The baleen whale rushes through the water, 

 engulfing countless open-sea creatures in the 

 huge cavern of its mouth. They are caught 

 on the frayed edges of the whalebone plates 

 which hang downwards from the palate. If 



