SKA-WEEDS. 93 



glowworms, bringing their tiny lamps to make it 

 luminous, and carrying in their track a gleam of 

 brilliant light. There are, probably, few marine 

 animals which are not more or less indebted for 

 their sustenance or enjoyment to some of the 

 numerous sea-plants, which lie beyond our ken in 

 the world beneath the waters. Every one of these 

 has its appointed dwelling-place and provision, 

 from 



" The aspiring fish that fain would be a brrd," 



down to 



" The Zoophyte, 



That link which hinds Prometheus to his rock, 

 The living fibre to insensate matter." 



But amid this store of living creatures, Death has 

 a work to do, and millions are born to live but a 

 few hours or days. In this vast basin, whose 

 every wave contains living things, 



" Countless as sunbeams, slight as gossamer," 



and in whose waters move also the monsters of the 

 deep, dead animal substances lie or float, whose 

 putrefying remains would spread poison on the air 

 above and around the sea, and gradually diffuse 

 that poison to earth's farthest limits. The sea air, 

 which now brings health on its breezes, would 

 carry disease and death, were it not for the sca- 

 venger-like animals which prey upon its refuse, 

 and for the sea-weeds, which, with continual and 

 rapid growth, cover every part of ocean's bed. 

 Their large tough and woody stems, crowned often 

 with gigantic fronds or leaves, assimilate to their 

 own support the masses of putrescence, arising both 

 from this source and from the substances constantly 

 carried by every tide from the shore. The decay 



