THE GEELONG NATUBALIST. 
43 
species of Algse. Isot that Tie named the 9 after himself, nor desired 
such an honour; but they were so named by the great Algologist, 
J. G. Agardh, to whom he was continually sending specimens 
through his friend, the late lamented Baron Von Mueller. I 
mention this in passing, as a suggestion to our young men that 
there is a more noble and worthy way of immortalising themselves 
when at the sea-side than in carving or scribbling their names 
on the shelters and rotundas, or even the rocks on which they 
pic-nic ! 
Let us suppose man to be an amphibious animal, and could con- 
tinue his walk from the forest to the sea, and without any discomfort 
through the sea along the bottom. He would find the surface of the 
land above water to have its counterpart in hills, dales, mountains, 
valleys, chasms and plateaus under water. (The " Challenger " ex- 
pedition proved that the depth of the sea in certain places corresponds 
virtually to the height of our highest mountains, i.e. about 5 miles.) 
He would further find himself making his way, now through a forest 
as dense as that through which Stanley marched in darkest Africa ; 
now across sandy deserts like the African Sahara (only a little more 
wet) ; and now along stretches of plain as richly covered witli 
verdure as an EJnglish park, a Scotch moor, or an Australian 
paddock. Instead of animals and birds, he would find himself 
surrounded by fish and the monsters of the deep. He would not 
discover anything to correspond to our trees as to size, for the stem of 
the largest Sea-weed is not greater than his thigh, and few of 
them are thicker than his finger : but as to length or height, he would 
have no cause to complain, for he would find all lengths, from the 
LaminaricB of 100 feet, to the Macrocystis pyrifera of 1,500 feet ! In 
the 15th century, the mariners of Spain used to tell fabulous stories of 
having to cut tlieir way through the gulf-weed of the Atlantic with 
hatchets ; stories which the discoveries of Columbus put an end to : 
but there is no doubt that on his journey along the bottom, our 
amphibious man would need to cut his way with hatchets through the 
forests, as the traveller through the primitive Australian bush. I have 
suggested this sub-aqueous journey to convey to your minds the 
thought that the flora and fauna of the land have their counterpart in 
the Algae of the sea ; and though such a journey is impossible, we are able 
to discover much of the beauty of these Alga? by means of dredging, 
and also through the samples tossed up by wind and wave upon the 
shore. Many also may be gathered in situ from the rocks and pools 
as the tide recedes and at low water ; care being taken, in these waters, 
that an octopus or a shark or a sting-ray does not get on too friendly 
terms with you. (I may mention that just a week ago whilst on the 
rocks at Barwon Heads, I caught a fair-sized octopus, which showed 
its ability to dart its tentacles a foot at least above the water's edge). 
But not only on account of their variety and beauty should the 
study of Algae claim our attention, but also on account of the 
multitudinous forms of animal life that infest them. With the 
Polyzoa, however, we have nothing more to do this evening than thus 
mention them. 
But the vegetation of the sea should further claim our interest on 
account of its utility. Stored up in the cells of the Zaminaria, is that 
