76 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 



twisted by the waves into enormous vegetable 

 cables several hundred feet long and thicker 

 than the human body. There are bays where 

 thousands of people have found employment 

 gathering these spoils after an ocean storm. 



" The Sm-gassum hacciferum is the Gulf 

 weed, which always floats and is not unfamil- 

 iar to voyagers upon the Atlantic and Pacific 

 Oceans. The localities where this seaweed is 

 most abundant are called Sargasso Seas. 



"Seaweeds love best the quiet waters of 

 the temperate seas, avoiding the cold waves of 

 the frigid zones and the more heated currents 

 of the torrid. If found in these, they lack the 

 delicacy of the mosses in the temperate zone. 

 Different seas and different localities have their 

 distinct sea flora, often found in such immense 

 colonies as to give their color to the sea. 



"They are dependent upon light, hence 

 are not found below one thousand feet, or 

 the depth to which light ceases to penetrate. 

 Light is their painter also : mosses near the 

 surface, catching its fullest rays, are green 

 like terrestrial vegetation ; the brilliant reds 

 and delicate pinks are to be found upon rocks 

 at no great depth and near the coasts ; those 

 in the deeper seas grow brown and abundant, 

 and their somber hues but enhance the bril- 



