172 
PRESENT RANGE. 
aceous stains, so frequent amidst the slates, 
owe their origin to the decomposition 
of small sea-weeds; in the upper rocks 
we again find them with sufficient cha¬ 
racter to indicate climate: but the pre¬ 
sent earth, in the waving foliage of its deep 
seas, presents an ample and various assem¬ 
blage of forms to which our fossil deposits 
afford no adequate parallel. 
The botanist tells us of a vegetable world 
beneath the waters, extending from pole to 
pole, divided into regular floral provinces, 
existing from the boundaries of perpetual 
darkness below, to the sunshine of the sur¬ 
face above, bearing marine counterparts of 
the minutest moss on the one hand, and of 
the most gigantic parasite on the other. 
Large spaces in the Atlantic are occupied by 
these submarine tangled forests, in one place 
covering two hundred and sixty thousand 
miles of surface; presenting the same appear¬ 
ance to the mariner now as in the days when 
the astonished discoverers of the American 
continent encountered it in their adventu¬ 
rous path, and named it the great sea-weed 
meadow. 
