THE SCHOOL OF THE SHORE 29 
or from remains of the plants, or from other 
animals which have fed on plants. So one 
incarnation or embodiment follows another 
in long chains, and this is the circulation of 
matter. 
It has been calculated that— 
One pound of cod means that the cod, to 
make it, had to eat ten pounds of 
whelk or buckie; 
One pound of buckie means that the 
buckie, to make it, had to eat ten 
pounds of sea-worms; 
One pound of worms means that the 
worms, to make it, had to eat ten 
pounds of vegetable sea-dust. 
We mean by the vegetable sea-dust the 
microscopic plants and their remains. 
Sometimes the chain is longer, sometimes 
shorter, but we cannot understand the econ- 
omy of the sea at all until we get a firm grip 
of the idea, which the chemist Liebig first 
made vivid, of the circulation of matter. It 
is a modern version of what one of the Greek 
philosophers, Heraclitus, said: ALL THINGS 
FLow. 
