SS THE OCEAN WORLD. 



of animals the region of life and health : there is enjoyment for 

 myriads in its waves ; there is happiness on its banks. 



The sea influences its numerous inhabitants, animal or vegetable, 

 by its temperature, by its density, by its saltness, by its bitterness, by 

 the never-ceasing agitation of its waves, and by the rapidity of its 

 currents. 



AVe have seen in preceding chapters that the sea only freezes 

 under intense cold, and then only at the surface. 



What immense varieties of size, shape, form, and colour, from the 

 nearly invisible algce which serve to nourish the small zoophytes and 

 molluscs, to the long, slender algee of fifty, and even 500, yards in 

 length ! How vast the disparity between the microscopic Infusoria 

 and the gigantic Whales ! 



" We find in the sea," says Lacepede, '• unity and diversity, 

 which constitute its beauty ; grandeur and simplicity, which give it 

 sublimity ; puissance and immensity, which command our wonder." 



In the following pages we shall figure and describe many inhabit- 

 ants of the sea ; but how many will still remain to be figured and 

 described ! From the days of Aristotle research has been succeeded 

 by research, without interruption. " But how vast the field," as 

 Lamarck observes, " which Science has still to cultivate, in order to 

 carry the knowledge already acquired to the degree of perfection 

 ot which it is susceptible !" 



" ^Vhen the tide retires from the shore, the sea leaves upon the 

 coast some itv^ of the numberless beings which it carries in its 

 bosom. In the first moments of its retreat, the naturalist may collect 

 a crowd of substances, vegetable and animal, of various characteristic 

 colours and properties. The inhabitants of the coast may find there 

 their food, their commerce, and their occupations. At low water the 

 nearest villages and hamlets send their contingents, old and young, 

 men, women, and children, to the harvest. Some apply themselves 

 to gathering the riband seaweed {Zostera), the membranous Ulva, the 

 sombre brown Fucus vcsicidosus a source of great wealth to the 

 dwellers by the sea, being much used in making kelp ; others gather 

 the small shells left on the sand ; boys mount upon the rocks in search 

 of whelks {Biiccinutn) and of mussels [AfytUus), and detach limpets 

 {.Patella) from the rocks to which they attach themselves. On some 

 coasts shells are sought for their beauty. By turning the stones, or 

 by sounding the crevices of the rocks with a hook at the end of a 

 pole, cuttles and calmars are sometimes surprised — sometimes even 



