92 SEA-WEEDS. 



forest trees which group themselves now on many 

 a bright spot of earth, over which, as geologists 

 tell us, ocean itself once flowed. The dancing 

 waves carry the long leaves backwards and for- 

 wards, and not a weed is there but some living 

 creature of wonderful and beauteous structure is 

 there too to enjoy it. We speak of the uses of sea- 

 weeds, and the God who has given to man u the 

 sea and all that therein is," designed them in some 

 measure for his service. But we make only a faint 

 estimate of the worth of marine vegetation, when 

 we think of sea-weeds but as contributing to 

 utility by their use in dyes and manufactures, or 

 in affording nutriment to us. They belong more 

 especially to the myriads of creatures which in- 

 habit the great deep. They are their homes, their 

 couches, their sources of food. It is wondrous to 

 reflect, that the worlds of water contain far more 

 of animal life than exists on this green earth, or in 

 the air which surrounds it ; for besides that a much 

 larger portion of the globe consists of water than 

 of land, the seas are inhabited in their depths. 

 Few are the terrestrial creatures which, like the 

 mole, know not the worth of light, and can make 

 their homes beneath earth's surface, unmindful of 

 its darkness. The millions of animated creatures 

 which float on air, or walk or creep over glade or 

 mountain, dwell on the external portion of earth. 

 But a great part of the depths has its living inmates, 

 and the Psalmist expressed his sense of their mul- 

 titude, when he said, " Therein are things creeping 

 innumerable, both small and great." There they 

 live and die, in a home suited by the great Creator 

 to their wants and capacities of enjoyment. Nor 

 is it all a home of darkness. The deep has its 



