THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



ice, and the cool sea fosters no sea- weed ; — that 

 this law, I say, holds good also for the sea, in the 

 direction of its depth ; for when we descend, vege- 

 table life vanishes much sooner than the animal, 

 and, even from the depths to which no ray of 

 light is capable of penetrating, the sounding-lead 

 brings up news at least of living infusoria. "* 



Who has not felt, when looking over a boat's 

 side into the clear crystal depth, a desire to go 

 and explore? Even on our own coasts, to see the 

 rich luxuriant forests of Lamin&ria or Alalia, 

 waving their great brown fronds to and fro, over 

 which the shell-fishes crawl, and on which the 

 green and rosy-fingered Anemones expand like 

 flowers, while the pipe-fishes twine about, and the 

 brilliant wrasses dart out and in, decked in scar- 

 let and green, — is a tempting sight, and one which 

 I have often gazed on with admiration. 



"Nothing can be more surprising and beautiful,'' 

 says Sir A. de Capell Brooke, "than the singular 

 clearness of the water of the Northern Seas. As 

 we passed slowly, over the surface, the bottom, 

 which here was in general a white sand, was 

 clearly visible, with its minutest objects, where the 

 depth was from twenty to twenty-five fathoms. 

 During the whole course of the tour I made, noth- 

 ing appeared to me so extraordinary as the in- 

 most recesses of the deep unveiled to the eye. The 

 surface of the ocean was unruffled by the slightest 

 breeze, and the gentle splashing f the oars 

 scarcely disturbed it. Hanging over the gunwale 

 of the boat, with wonder and delight I gazed on 

 the slowly moving scene below. Where the bot- 

 tom was sandy, the different kinds of Asterias, 

 Echinus, and even the smallest shells, appeared at 

 that great depth conspicuous to the eye ; and the 

 * Schleiden's Lectures, pp. 403-406. 

 278 





