SECRETS OF THE OCEAN 



WE are often held spellbound by the majesty 

 of mountains, and indeed a lofty peak 

 forever capped with snow, or pouring forth smoke 

 and ashes, is impressive beyond all terrestrial 

 things. But the ocean yields to nothing in its 

 grandeur, in its age, in its ceaseless movement, 

 and the question remains forever unanswered, 

 "Who shall sound the mysteries of the sea?" 

 Before the most ancient of mountains rose from 

 the heart of the earth, the waves of the sea rolled 

 as now, and though the edges of the continents 

 shrink and expand, bend into bays or stretch out 

 into capes, always through all the ages the sea 

 follows and laps with ripples or booms with 

 breakers unceasingly upon the shore. 



Whether considered from the standpoint of the 

 scientist, the mere curiosity of the tourist, or the 

 keen delight of the enthusiastic lover of Nature, 

 the shore of the sea — its sands and waters, its 

 ever-changing skies and moods — is one of the most 

 interesting spots in the world. The very bottom 

 of the deep bays near shore — dark and eternally 

 silent, prisoned under the restless waste of waters 

 — is thickly carpeted with strange and many- 

 coloured forms of animal and vegetable life. But 

 the beaches and tide-pools over which the moon- 



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