LIFE AT AND NEAR SURFACE 137 



over the water is so clear and transparent that 

 man can look upon this marvellous marine 

 world beneath the surface of the sea. 



Even more remarkable still, the bottom of 

 the sea in the tropics has been actually photo- 

 graphed and one may sit in a northern theatre 

 and see moving pictures of the bed of the trop- 

 ical sea th' own upon the screen. These won- 

 derful pictures, taken by the Williamson 

 Brothers with apparatus which they invented 

 and made for the purpose, show the marvel- 

 lous abundance and variety of submarine life 

 to the very greatest advantage. But even these 

 pictures fall far short of giving us an adequate 

 idea of the jungles of growths and the forests 

 of corals which cover the bed of tropical seas 

 in many places. Divers who have descended 

 in certain localities report corals as large as 

 forest trees; great, massive growths with 

 trunks several feet in diameter and with broad 

 spreading limbs interlacing on every side and 

 forming a roof of tangled, impenetrable 

 branches very similar to a forest on land. 



In addition to these lofty, branching, tree- 

 like forms there are great, rounded, dome- 



