THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



31 



first rose amongst the floating mountains of crystal ; 

 and many a beauteous bubble endowed with life first 

 sported in the chilly waters washing their polished 

 sides. 



The physical influences that affect the distribu- 

 tion of marine animals in the Arctic province are 

 various, and somewhat complicated. The sea bound- 

 ing the northern extremity of Europe is, in the 

 main, deep, and very deep in parts. Between Spitz- 

 bergen and West Greenland twelve hundred fathoms 

 of line have not reached the bottom. There are 

 fathomable depths enough, however, and sufficient 

 ground within the range of the laminarian, coralline, 

 and deep-sea coral zones to cherish the development 

 of animal and vegetable life, if unfavourable influ- 

 ences did not interfere. Cold is the great arrester 

 of organization in these northern regions. Its in- 

 fluence is chiefly exerted in the littoral and lamina- 

 rian zones, partly through the low temperature of 

 the air, partly through the cold waters of the Arctic 

 current flowing from the eternal ice of the pole 

 onwards towards the south-west. But the unfavour- 

 able effects of the surface waters are modified by 

 the higher temperature of the depths, for in the 

 Arctic seas (and also in the Antarctic) the tempera- 

 ture increases as we descend, contrary to what takes 

 place in the seas of temperate and warm regions. 

 The consequence is, that instead of the marginal 

 zones of these seas being most favourable to the 

 development of animal and vegetable life, they are 



