162 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
or three degrees of latitude—is mainly due to small 
meduse and nudibranchiate molluscs. Many thousands 
of square miles must literally run riot with life, since the 
coloured waters we speak of are calculated to form one- 
fourth of the sea between the 74th and 80th parallels” 
All of these animated beings tell of vegetation, for this 
supplies the primary food by which they are sustained. It 
is so on land: there we have herbivori and carnivori 
animals feeding on the vegetable productions of the earth, 
and beasts and birds, and insects innumerable which prey 
upon these, but they, too, are sustained by the grass and 
the herb of the field, for by these have their prey been 
nourished, and like to life on earth is life on the sea. 
© On the Greenland coast,’ says in continuation the writer 
T have quoted, ‘where the transparency of the waters is 
so great that the bottom and every object upon it are 
clearly discernible, even at a depth of eighty fathoms, the 
ocean-bed is covered with gigantic tangles, so as to remind 
the spectator of the ocean-gardens of the Tropical Zone. 
Alcyonians, sertularians, acidians, nullipores, mussels, and 
a variety of other sessile animals incrust every stone, or 
congregate in every fissure and hollow of the rocky ground. 
A dead seal or fish flung into the sea is soon converted 
into a skeleton, it is said, by the myriads of small crusta- 
ceans which infest these northern waters, and, like the 
ants in the equatorial forests, perform the part of scaven- 
gers of the deep.’* 
* He adds :—' It is evident from the observations of Professor Forbes, that depth has 
a very considerable influence in the distribution of marine life. From the surface to 
the depth of 1380 feet eight distinct zones or regions have been mapped out in the sea, 
each of which has its own vegetation and inhabitants ; and the number of these regions 
must now be increased, after the astonishing results of the deep-sea soundings of Dr 
Carpenter and Professor Wyville Thomson. The changes in the different zones are not 
abrupt ; some of the creatures of an under region always appear before those of the 
region above it vanish ; and though there are a few species the same in some of the eight 
zones, only two are common to all. It is to be observed that those near the surface 
have forms and colours analogous to the inhabitants of southern latitudes, while those 
at a greater depth are analogous to the animals of northern waters. Hence, in the sea, 
depth corresponds with latitude, as height does on land. Mrs Somerville adds, in lan- 
guage of much terseness, that the extent of the geographical distribution of any species 
is proportioned to the depth at which it lives. Consequently, those which live near the 
surface are less widely dispersed than those inhabiting deep water. 
‘The larger and more active inhabitants of the seas obey the same laws with the rest 
of creation, though their provinces, or regions, are in some instances very extensive. 
