SEA-MEADOWS 93 
tons of fishes off their coasts in 1915, which is more 
than twice the total export of eggs from the country. 
And fishes have not to be fed in the same sense as 
poultry. The question arises, however, whether 
the system of interrelations established in the sea 
cannot be improved so as to yield a smaller number 
of useless and a larger number of useful animals. 
An interesting question indeed, but no naturalist 
who realizes the implications of “ the web of life” 
will be in a hurry to do more than experiment on a 
small scale. The balance of nature is not to be 
tampered with impetuously. 
Utilitarian considerations apart, the sea-meadows 
are of great scientific interest. In his Voyage of 
the “ Beagle,’ Darwin was impressed by the Kelp 
(Macrocystis pyrifera) and its animal associates. 
He writes: ‘The number of living creatures of 
all orders whose existence intimately depends on 
the Kelp is wonderful. A great volume might be 
written describing the inhabitants of one of these 
beds of seaweed... .I can only compare these 
aquatic forests of the Southern Hemisphere with the 
terrestrial ones in the inter-tropical region. Yet if 
in any country a forest was destroyed, I do not be- 
lieve nearly so many species of animals would perish 
as would here, from the destruction of the Kelp.” 
The succession of incarnations from sea-grass 
to fisherman gives one a vivid impression of the 
universal flux; there is a fascinating variety of ani- 
mal-communities—Professor Petersen distinguishes 
eight distinctive associations, each with an economic 
