68 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 
water, which only the deep-divers can reach, 
and if the storm lasts for several days the gan- 
nets and similar sea-fowl begin to starve. 
They become weak, and they get battered. 
Perhaps this is part of the explanation of the 
fact that the gannet often stores fish beside its 
resting-place on the rocky island. 
THE FLOATING SEA-MEADOWS 
If we are to understand the life of the open 
sea at all, we must picture what Sir John 
Murray called the “ floating sea-meadows,”— 
vast tracts of water thickly peopled by minute 
plants, e.g. those Alge called Diatoms. On 
these everything else depends. For the 
pelagic Alge are possessed of the chlorophyll 
pigment that marks all green plants, and they 
are thus able to utilise the energy of the sun- 
light to build up the simple materials of air, 
water, and salts into complicated substances 
like starch, on which minute animals can feed. 
Of almost all animals it must be said that they 
can feed only on what is living, or has been 
living, or has been made by something living; 
but green plants feed on what is not living— 
air, water, and salts. ‘Therefore, in tracing 
