120 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



called sea-spiders, whose precise relationships 

 are uncertain; lamp-shells and colonies re- 

 lated to the sea-mat; all sorts of molluscs- 

 bivalves, snails, and cuttles; the degenerate 

 sea-squirts, some on long stalks; and numer- 

 ous strange fishes. Here the list ends for 

 we dare not include sea-serpents in the abyssal 

 fauna at least. 



Walt Whitman's famous picture, "The 

 World below the Brine," refers not so much 

 to the Deep Sea as to the bottom of the sea 

 within the shore-area in the wide sense. But 

 it is incomparably fine. 



" Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves, 

 Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick 



tangle, the openings, and the pink turf, 

 Different colours, pale grey and green, purple, white, and 



gold, the play of the light through the water, 

 Dumb swimmers there among the rocks, coral, gluten, grass, 



rushes, and the aliment of the swimmers, 

 Sluggish existences grazing there or suspended close to the 



bottom, 

 Sight in these ocean depths, wars, pursuits, tribes breathing 



that thick-breathing air, as so many do." 



FITNESSES OF DEEP-SEA ANIMALS 



Many of the fixed animals of the great 

 depths have long stalks which raise the im- 



