LITERARY STRUGGLES. 175 



"All this forms the scenery, as it were, of our novel 

 " position. But these dim recesses are not solitudes ; 

 " the water teems with life to an extent utterly unknown 

 " to the sunny earth above. Minute crustaceous animals 

 "swarm in every part, and gelatinous animalcules so 

 " abound as almost to touch each other. Beautiful 

 "shells, whose loveliness, however, is partly concealed 

 " by their leathery skin, glide slowly over the rocks ; 

 " the paper nautilus darts by in its graceful but fragile 

 " habitation ; and the giant clam opens its immense 

 "valves to feed in security in the shelter of yonder 

 " cavern. The loggerhead turtle, however, explores the 

 "caverns for his prey, within whose formidable jaws 

 " even the stony shells of the great conchs are crushed 

 " like a walnut ; nor is the depth of ocean inaccessible to 

 " him who urges his arrowy course through the waters 

 " with the swiftness of a bird upon the wing. We are 

 " tempted at first sight to believe that these slimy rocks 

 " give birth to the most brilliant flowers ; so close is the 

 "resemblance borne by the expanded actiniae to these 

 " lovely productions of the garden. We can almost 

 " identify the aster, the anemone, the sunflower, the 

 " daisy, the cactus, the carnation, and other favourites of 

 " the parterre, in these fleshy animal-flowers that 



" 'The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear.' 



" The water is now become our atmosphere ; in which 

 " the place of the feathered tribes is supplied by the no 

 "less varied tribes of fishes, which cleave the waters 

 " with a fleetness emulating that of the most favoured 

 " inhabitants of the upper air. The gemmed and glitter- 

 " ing mail in which many of these tenants of the deep 

 " are arrayed, rivals the hues of the parrots or the 

 " humming-birds. The labrus, which has just shot past 



