The Ocean World: Being a Description of the Sea and its Living Inhabitants

Louis Figuier

Sep 2020 · Library of Alexandria

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"Our Planet is surrounded by two great oceans," says Dr. Maury, the eminent American savant: "the one visible, the other invisible; one is under foot, the other over head. One entirely envelopes it, the other covers about two-thirds of its surface." It is proposed in "The Ocean World" to give a brief record of the Natural History of one of those great oceans and its living inhabitants, with as little of the nomenclature of Science, and as few of the repulsive details of Anatomy, as is consistent with clearness of expression; to describe the ocean in its majestic calm and angry agitation; to delineate its inhabitants in their many metamorphoses; the cunning with which they attack or evade their enemies; their instructive industry; their quarrels, their combats, and their loves.

The learned Schleiden eloquently paints the living wonders of the deep: "If we dive into the liquid crystal of the Indian Ocean, the most wondrous enchantments are opened to us, reminding us of the fairy tales of childhood's dreams. The strangely-branching thickets bear living flowers. Dense masses of Meandrineas and Astreas contrast with the leafy, cup-shaped expansions of the Explanarias, and the variously-branching Madrepores, now spread out like fingers, now rising in trunk-like branches, and now displaying an elegant array of interlacing tracery. The colouring surpasses everything; vivid greens alternate with brown and yellow; rich tints, ranging from purple and deepest blue to a pale reddish-brown. Brilliant rose, yellow, or peach-coloured Nullipores overgrow the decaying masses: they themselves being interwoven with the pearl-coloured plates of the Retipores, rivalling the most delicate ivory carvings. Close by wave the yellow and lilac Sea-fans (Gorgonia), perforated like delicate trellis-work. The bright sand of the bottom is covered with a thousand strange forms of sea-urchins and star-fishes. The leaf-like Flustræ and Escharæ adhere like mosses and lichens to the branches of coral—the yellow, green, and purple-striped limpets clinging to their trunks. The sea-anemones expand their crowns of tentacula upon the rugged rocks or on flat sands, looking like beds of variegated ranunculuses, or sparkling like gigantic cactus blossoms, shining with brightest colours.

"Around the branches of the coral shrubs play the humming-birds of the ocean: little fishes sparkling with red or blue metallic glitter, or gleaming in golden green or brightest silvery lustre; like spirits of the deep, the delicate milk-white jelly-fishes float softly through the charmed world. Here gleam the violet and gold-green Isabelle, and the flaming yellow, black, and vermilion-striped Coquette, as they chase their prey; there the band-fish shoots snake-like through the thicket, resembling a silvery ribbon glittering with rose and azure hue. Then come the fabulous cuttle-fishes, in all the diaphanous colours of the rainbow, but with no definite outline.