134 THE OCEAN 



this great ocean river and are washed upon 

 our shores or captured by fishermen. No 

 doubt it was in some such manner that many 

 marine animals have been scattered far and 

 wide and are found in various parts of the 

 ocean, and one of the greatest problems that 

 oceanographers and scientists have had to 

 solve is how and why some marine creatures 

 are found in widely separated parts of the sea 

 while closely related species are confined to a 

 single locality. 



In shallow water the appearance of the 

 ocean's bed must be very different from that 

 at great depths, for in the warmer waters and 

 where more or less sunlight filters through 

 from the surface, the bottom of the sea is cov- 

 ered w^ith a perfect forest of strange growths ; 

 a veritable jungle of remarkable animal and 

 vegetable life. 



Just as the greatest abundance of terrestrial 

 animal-life is found in the tropical lands, so 

 in tropical seas we find the greatest number 

 and forms of marine life, and just as the vege- 

 tation of tropical countries is ranker, more 

 luxuriant and more brilliant than the forest 



