XVlii INTHODUCTION 



things, so that we may trace, if we will, the pyramid of 

 life from the minute globigerina to the majestic whale. 

 Here, again, we have a subject that should be full of 

 interest to us as Britons, remembering how favourably 

 we are situated with regard to some of the most pro- 

 lific fisheries of the world, and how utterly we are 

 dependent upon outside sources for the great bulk of 

 our food. It is also well for us to understand ho\v, 

 owing to the advance of science, we are now able to 

 bring even so perishable an article as fish over many 

 thousands of miles of sea as fresh as when it was first 

 caught, although as yet we have not cared to develop 

 this side of our food-supply to any extent. It is, I 

 think, a consoling reflection that, however great the 

 increase of population may be, there is to be found in 

 the sea an ample supply for all its needs as regards 

 animal food, a supply which only requires man's 

 courage, hardihood, and skill to gather in, and wise 

 methods of distribution to bring it within reach 

 of all. 



In the chapter dealing with the mysterious un- 

 known and unknowable depths of the ocean, those 

 immense profundities whose recesses we can never 

 penetrate, I have been driven to the exercise of 

 imagination based upon the scanty facts we have been 

 able to collect from the results of the various expedi- 

 tions which have been despatched for the study of 

 oceanography, notably the memorable voyage of the 

 Challenger. This, perhaps, is too esoteric a subject for 

 general interest, and yet it has a fascination all its 

 own, and its place in the sum of things we desire to 

 know is a very high one. It is well, for instance, to 

 know within a little the depths of ocean's abysses, 



