20 



THE OPAL SEA 



mists in the sun, they reappear like mists; but 

 their coming and their going are one and the 

 same thing to the great Mother. Never has 

 she done more for her offspring than to give it 

 facilities for existing and expedients against 

 sudden death. Each one of her children has 

 its peculiar adaptation enabling it to seek and 

 gather food and brave its enemies by feint or 

 flight or breed. But having once fitted them 

 for the conflict she abandons each species to its 

 fate, leaving it to live or die as it may or must. 

 The equipment of the flying fish, the octopus, 

 the sea lily, the common kelp, is each complete 

 in itself; therefore, let each work out its own 

 salvation or destruction. Death is not the un- 

 expected. All through the kingdom of the sea 

 some must die that others may live. Continu- 

 ally is life sustained by life destroyed. It is 

 the law of being and the Mother of the Wave 

 Myriads never puts forth a hand to restrain or 

 check it. She is wholly indifferent. 



For the creatures of the land — the creatures 

 not of her spawning except perhaps in the early 

 days — the sea has, if possible, even less care. 

 They belong to a different brood and have no 

 adaptation to the water. They cannot swim in 

 the depths, they are not able to breathe the 

 ocean atmosphere, and the food of the ocean 



