THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



15 



and continued to make the tamer bonnds of the 

 Euxine. A last and isolated portion is that which 

 terminates Europe on the south-east, and constitutes 

 the north-western border of the Caspian Sea. 



Along such a range of shore, extending through 

 various climates, from the warm and sunny confines 

 of Africa to the ice-bound cliffs of Nova Zembla 

 and Spitzbergen, we cannot fail to find many and 

 diversified assemblages of animated creatures. The 

 beings who delight in the chilly waters of the Arctic 

 Ocean must be very different from those which revel 

 in the genial seas of the south ; whilst the temperate 

 tides that lave our own favoured shores, cherish a 

 submarine population intermediate in character be- 

 tween both. Thus in our progress from north to 

 south we pass through regions or belts exhibiting 

 successive changes in the features of animated 

 nature. It is not so, however, in proceeding from 

 the Straits of Gibraltar to the easternmost recesses 

 of the Mediterranean ; passing along the same 

 parallel of latitude throughout, we carry with us, 

 as it were, the creatures who met us at the gates, 

 and when we enter the less pleasant expanse of the 

 Black Sea, we find the differences lie mainly in defi- 

 ciencies, and not marked by the presence of new 

 creatures. In the inland and isolated Caspian, it 

 is true, we behold strange and peculiar animals, 

 but their presence, as we shall hereafter learn, is 

 rather to be regarded in connection with the past 

 than with the present — as the living witnesses of 



