THE UNKNOWN. 



swift-finned races, which shoot athwart the deep, 

 and for the countless hosts of tiny things, to 

 whose organisation even the confinement of a 

 vessel is speedy death, we must find some other 

 device before we can cultivate acquaintance with 

 them. 



It is true, we can put together a goodly number 

 of individual objects, which various accidents have 

 from time to time revealed to us from the depths, 

 and form them into an imaginary picture. Schlei- 

 den has done this, and a lovely delineation he has 

 made. You have only to gaze on it, to admire 

 it: I would not abate your admiration; I admire 

 it too:— but remember, after all, it is but a fancy 

 sketch of the unknown; it is only "founded on 

 fact." 



"We dive," he observes, "into the liquid crystal 

 of the Indian Ocean, and it opens to us the most 

 wondrous enchantments of the fairy tales of our 

 childhood's dreams. The strangely branching 

 thickets bear living flowers. Dense masses of 

 Meandrinas and Astraeas contrast with the leafy, 

 cup-shaped expansions of the Hxplanarias, the 

 variously-ramified Madrepores, which are now 

 spread out like fingers, now rise in trunk-like 

 branches, and now display the most elegant array 

 of interlacing branches. The colouring surpasses 

 everything : vivid green alternates with brown or 

 yellow ; rich tints of purple, from pale red-brown 

 to the deepest blue. Brilliant rosy, yellow, or 

 peach-coloured Xullipores overgrow the decaying 

 masses, and are themselves interwoven with the 

 pearl-coloured plates of the Retipores, resembling 

 the most delicate ivory carvings. Close by, wave 

 the yellow and lilac fans, perforated like trellis- 

 work, of the Gorgonias. The clear sand of the 

 bottom is covered with the thousand strange forms 

 27") 



