GO 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
patches, or forming vast forests in the oceanic valleys. These sub- 
marine forests protect and nourish millions of animals which creep, 
which run, which swim, which sink into the sands, attach themselves 
to rocks, lodge themselves in crevices, which construct dwellings for 
themselves, which seek for or fly from each other, which piursue or 
fight, caress each other lovingly, or devour each other without pity- 
Charles Darwin truly remarks somewhere that our terrestrial forests 
do not maintain nearly so many living heings as those which swarm 
in the bosom of the sea. The ocean, which tor man is the region of 
asphyxia and death, is tor millions of animals the region of life and 
health: there is enjoyment for myriads in its waves; there is hap- 
piness on its banks ; there is the blue above all. 
The sea influences its numerous inhabitants, animal or vegetable, 
by its temperature, by its density, by its saltness, by its bitterness, by 
the never-ceasing agitation of its waves, and by the rapidity of its 
currents. 
We have seen in preceding chapters that the sea only freezes 
under intense cold, and then only at the surface, and that at the 
depth of five hundred fathoms the same permanent temperature exists 
in all latitudes. On the other hand, it is agreed that the agitations 
produced by the most violent storms are never felt beyond the depth 
of twelve or thirteon fathoms. From this it follows that animals and 
vegetables, by descending more or less, according to the cold or dis- 
turbing movements, can always reach a medium which agrees with 
their constitutions. 
The hosts of the sea are distinguished by a peculiar softness- 
Certain pelagic plants present only a very weak, feeble consistence ; » 
great number are transformed by ebullition into a sort of jelly. The 
flesh of marine animals is more or less flaccid ; many seem to consist 
of a diaphanous mucilage. The skeleton of the more perfect species 
is more or less flexible and cartilaginous ; and it rarely attains, as to 
weight and consistency, the strength of bone exhibited by terrestrhd 
vertebrate animals. Nevertheless, both the shells and coral produced 
in the bosom of the ocean are remarkable for their stony solidity- 
Among marine bodies, in short, we find at once the softest and hardest 
of organized substances. 
The separation of organized beings, nourished by the ocean, lS 
