CHAPTER II 

 THE OPEN SEA 



Contrast between Shore and Open Sea The Floating Sea- 

 Meadows The Animals of the Open Sea Sea-Deserts 

 Swimmers and Drifters The Whale as a Great Bundle 

 of Fitnesses The Story of the Storm Petrel Open-Sea 

 Insects Turtles Sea-Snakes and Sea-Serpents Fit- 

 nesses of Open-Sea Drifters The Story of the Floating 

 Barnacle Hunger and Love in the Open Sea The Open 

 Sea as a Nursery. 



T) Y the open sea, naturalists mean the well- 

 -*-' lighted surface-waters well away from 

 the shallow shelf around the islands and con- 

 tinents. It is not the mere surface of the 

 water, it includes all the zones of water 

 through which the light penetrates freely; 

 and that, we must remember, is much farther 

 than at the coast where the waves stir up the 

 sea-floor and bring so many fine particles into 

 suspension in the water, that much of the light 

 is stopped. In the upper levels of the open 

 sea or pelagic haunt, there are multitudinous 

 minute plants mingled with the animal ten- 



