IN THE DEPTHS 



63 



dreds of feet below, scattering like golden 

 threads through the imder-waters, lighting up 

 great beds of kelp and banks of sponges and 

 gra)^ floors of ooze, where flounders lie flattened 

 in the mud and polyps creep and albicores go 

 gliding by with apparently no effort. 



Even more marked than the Mediterranean 

 is the crystalline quality of the Caribbean. So 

 clear is it that Columbus — Columbus who was 

 seeking a new trade route rather than a new 

 beauty of the sea — could not help commenting 

 upon it. The Gulf of California, on the Pa- 

 cific side, is quite as clear. From the high 

 cliffs near Guaymas one can see floors of white 

 rock, two hundred feet beneath the surface, 

 which are not only distinctly visible to the eye 

 but cast reflected lights upward that affect the 

 color of the surface waters. The patches on 

 the surface that look light gray or yellow or 

 perhaps blackish — the patches that the navi- 

 gator so quickly notices and associates with 

 reefs or bars — are frequently caused by the re- 

 flection of the underlying sea beds. They are 

 proof in themselves of the transparency of the 

 water. 



But the underlying sea beds may also de- 

 stroy transparency. The muddy bottoms of the 

 North Sea make its waters cloudy, yellowish, — 



The ricnr 

 Meiiiler- 

 ranean. 



The Carib- 

 bean and the 

 Pacific. 



Bottom 

 reflections 



