CHAPTER X 



DWELLERS IN THE DEEP 



Marine 

 life in the 

 great 

 depths. 



The beautiful sea gardens of the Bermudas 

 or the Bahamas, the upland meadows of the 

 bench and the shallow, are not the only places 

 where marine life flourishes. It was thought 

 for many centuries that there was no other sea 

 world than this, long believed that nothing 

 could live out of the sunlight; and that the 

 great depths were cold, barren, lifeless spaces. 

 We calmly assumed that beyond our vision there 

 could be nothing — a conclusion quite worthy of 

 the King of Dahomey. But happily the dredg- 

 ings of the Challenger have corrected us. 

 There is life of many kinds in the great depths, 

 and in abundance. Twenty thousand sea 

 urchins brought up at one haul of the dredge 

 would seem to suggest as much. 



And are we quite right in still believing that 

 there is no light in the ocean depths? Sun- 

 light we feel reasonably sure is dissipated and 

 lost in a hundred or more fathoms of water; 

 but is there no other light? The dwellers in 



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