Marine life

“ The activity of this marine life is owing not more to the comfort with which the abundance of water-surface and the frequency of harbors allow it to be kept up than to the intense vitality and fruitfulness of the denizens of the water itself. ”

“ But little fresh water empties upon this part of the coast, and here, where the salt water is little modified by any deposit from the land, but where the violence of the ocean is broken by this barrier of islands, there is a full development of marine life. ”

“ We had found an endless source of pleasure and profit in the examination of the marine animals which drifted by us in the floating sargassum of the Gulf Stream, and we had seen for ourselves what we had so often read, that the ocean is the true home of animal life, and that the life of the land is as nothing when compared with the boundless wealth of living things in mid-ocean. ”

“ Let us take, in connection with all this, the fact that we are dealing with the deposits of the earliest ocean known to us—an ocean warm and abounding in the mineral matters suitable for the skeletons of humble animals, and fitted to nourish aquatic plants. The conditions were certainly favourable to an exuberant development of the lower forms of marine life; and in later times, when such conditions prevail, we generally find that life has been introduced to take advantage of them. ”

“ Assuming that the reader is one who desires to become intimately acquainted with the wonderful and varied forms of life to be met with on the sea shore, or, hoping that he may be lured into the interesting and profitable pastimes of the sea-side naturalist, we shall now devote a chapter to the consideration of the appliances required for the collection and examination of marine life, and to general instructions as to the methods by which we may best search out the principal and most interesting objects of the shore. ”

“ On a planet where life has a marine origin the ideal conditions for life implantation are provided by a large number of inland seas, by an extensive shore line of shallow waters and sheltered bays; and just such a distribution of the earth's waters was rapidly developing. ”

“ This they gather along the shores whose waters are their habitat, or cull from the shallow sea bottoms. For all the rest, they are mutually dependent upon each other’s flesh for life, unscrupulous, unsatisfied, and vigorous beyond belief. ”

“ The naturalists and the men of the deep-sea fish-commissions who had come with us, still lifted in their nets and buckets the blue fish-smelling lumps of life, burst and blown out from their own inner pressures before they could be drawn within a thousand yards of our sea’s shining surface. But for the naturalists, too, their work was done; and they joined us in equal jubilation upon the deck where we all sat together lazily at last, and watched the crew furl the sails which had served to keep us upon our slow courses for the last long weeks. ”

“ There is a strife between these currents, and on their confines eddies are formed which ships avoid, but there is no danger unless the wind blows strongly against the tide.
Besides the influence of the currents and the tides of the ocean in altering the configuration of the land, the sea is the home of innumerable forms of animal life, which are constantly laboring in the same direction. It has been truly said, that [706] a beef bone, thrown overboard by a sailor on a ship, may form the nucleus of a new continent. ”

“ In the evening of the 29th, we observed that luminous appearance of the sea which has been so often mentioned by navigators, and of which such various causes have been assigned; some supposing it to be occasioned by fish, which agitated the water by darting at their prey, some by the putrefaction of fish and other marine animals, some by electricity, and others referring it into a great variety of different causes. ”

“ To eager students of marine natural history, nothing can well be stranger than the manner in which, with two or three honourable exceptions, the sperm whale fishers of the world have “sinned their mercies.” To them as to no other class of sea-farers have been vouchsafed not glimpses merely, but consecutive months and years of the closest intimacy with the secret things of old ocean, embracing almost the whole navigable globe. ”

“ A most curious and interesting set of phenomena are those which often occur when a group of fishes, once marine, take by practice to inhabiting freshwater rivers; or, vice-versâ, when a freshwater kind, moved by an aspiration for more expansive surroundings, takes up its residence in the sea as a naturalised marine. ”

“ But without touching upon the lower forms of life peopling the sea, and so escaping the burden of thought which the slightest consideration of their myriads entail, it is possible to note, without weariness, how, all over the waste spaces of a remote and unhearing ocean, fish of noble proportions and varying degrees of edibility disport themselves, breeding none know where, and revealing their beauties to the passing seafarer as they gather companionably around his solitary keel. ”

“ Can you remember watching your fleet of snowy paper spreading their white wings and sailing away into the far distance, after the manner of Christopher Columbus or Vasco di Gama? Or have you seen your toy ships driven by fierce winds on to a lee shore bristling with cruel crags and yawning clefts?
A very ocean it is, no doubt, to the feathered creatures that float upon its waters, shelter beneath [Pg 206] its rush-lined banks, and spend their whole family life within its borders. ”

“ I was amazed at the variety of its inhabitants, yet how small a part could I trace. I was astonished at the number of birds, flitting over the ocean; and I thought, if provision was made for them, I had no reason for fear. On a brilliant moonlight evening, our ship struck on something, which threw us off our seats! What could it be? we were in the centre of the Western ocean. We soon discovered it was a sleeping whale; we also beheld the water-spout, so often described, as a surprising phenomenon. ”

“ When the world was wrapped in a mantle of seas, before the first continent thrust its rocky ridges above the waves, no doubt those warm waves swarmed with busy life. “The waters brought forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life”; and to-day, as in all previous ages, the sea is the headquarters and busy home of living things. In every zone the waters teem with animal organisms, so numerous that we doubt whether the sands on the shores, or the stars that fill space equal them for multitude. ”

“ If the reader will follow the general instructions given in Chapter II. on the outdoor work of the marine naturalist, he will undoubtedly make the acquaintance of a considerable variety of interesting species which may be captured in the rock pools, found under stones at low tide, or obtained by means of a small dredge; but his knowledge of our littoral fishes may be appreciably extended by the occasional employment of rod and line from rocks and piers, or from a small boat in close proximity to the shore.
The appliances required are of a very simple nature, and not at all costly. ”

“ This is often a matter of no little importance to the sea-side naturalist, who may require to keep marine animals alive for some time at considerable distance from the sea shore, while their growth and habits are observed. ”

“ Every one familiar with the sea-coast, must have observed it moving through the air with a jerking flight, occasionally alighting on a rock or on the beach near the line of high-water mark, searching busily for marine insects. ”

“ Thus we perceive that these creatures, though they are regarded as being so low in the scale of creation, may nevertheless be regarded as agents of much importance in the terrestrial economy; for we perceive that they are capable of spreading over certain parts of the ocean those benign mantles of warmth which temper the winds, and modify, more or less, all the marine climates of the earth. ”

“ The first step in marine biological investigations, whether in the Polar sea or elsewhere, is the study of the physical conditions under which the marine forms of animals and plants live, and correlation of these observations in various seas. ”

“ Nor are the ships of man the only travellers we shall perceive upon this mighty map of the ocean. Flocks of sea-birds are passing and repassing, diving for their food or for pastime, migrating from shore to shore with unwearied wing and undeviating instinct, or wheeling and swarming around the rocks which they make alive and vocal by their numbers and their clanging cries. ”

“ Of the useful marine animals, those which are most readily captured are the littoral forms, many of which, on shores where the tides are well marked, are exposed, or at least brought within easy reach, by the daily ebb and flow of the tide, and can be obtained with the minimum of apparatus. ”

“ First class passengers are expected to appear in evening dress for dinner on vessels of some of the popular British lines running to far Southern ports.
So far as bird life is concerned, the sea is a graveyard when sailing through the equatorial zone. All fowl leave the ship when the sun gets hot and the breezes become warm. The only winged life appearing in this hot section of the sea was flying fish, sometimes hundreds of them rising from the water at the same time. ”

“ That there are animals in the northern and other seas with which we are unacquainted, is more than probable: discoveries of animals of new species are constantly being made, especially in the life of the deep sea. ”

“ The seaman, drifting along the coast, and misled by the increasing clearness and mirage, believes that he has been driven by a current towards the land; he casts the lead, and looks anxiously out for the sea breeze, in order to escape from what he believes to be threatening danger. The planks burn under his feet; in vain he spreads the awning to shelter himself from the broiling sun. Its rays are oppressive; repose does not refresh; motion is not agreeable. The inhabitants of the deep, awakened by the clear light of day, prepare themselves for labour. ”

“ FIG. 27.—THE PAPER NAUTILUS (Argonauta argo) SAILING.
It is an old belief that in calm weather it rises from the bottom of the sea, and, elevating its two broadly-expanded arms, spreads to the gentle air, as a sail, the membrane, light as a spider's web, by which they are united; and that, [Pg 77] seated in its boat-like shell, it thus floats over the smooth surface of the ocean, steering and paddling with its other arms. Should storm arise or danger threaten, its masts and sail are lowered, its oars laid in, and the frail craft, filling with water, sinks gently beneath the waves. ”

“ Large rivers, deep inlets, inland seas and passages into the Gulf of Carpentaria, were terms frequently used in our conversations of this evening, and the prospect of making an interesting discovery seemed to have infused new life and vigour into every man in the ship. ”

“ Another world besides the one we now inhabit, has had its existence, inhabited, as ours is, by animals terrestrial and marine. A time was when all that is now land was covered by the ocean, as the secondary mountains, with their beds of petrified marine productions, abundantly prove. ”

“ It is set at this low level to facilitate the movement of the sea-water, and its design is to represent the fishes and marine animals as nearly as possible in their native haunts and habits, to do which, and not startle the fish, the visitors go through darkened passages, and are thus concealed from them, all the light coming in by refraction through the water. Their actions are thus natural, and they move about with perfect freedom, some of the tanks being of enormous size. ”

“ All the wonders of the great deep were about them—strange fish, sea porpoise, and whales, by day, and ever-new phosphorescent gleams and starry heavens by night. Then the wonderful interest of a sail at sea, or a distant steamship; some other humanity than that on their own ship passing them on the limitless ocean! ”

“ In future times the seaman's sounding-rod may reach the bottom on which it has fallen, and thus reveal to man the secret paths of the sea,—or when the geological clock next strikes the hour, the same little shell may, by some throe of nature, be brought up to the surface, and spread out in its marl bed, to fertilize and make fruitful unknown lands. ”

“ On the Lakes and the Pacific coast, where steep shores or piers command deep water, and by mechanical contrivances heavy boats can be launched directly into it, the English life-boat is in general use. ”

“ But the ocean lies winking in the sunlight like a drowsy lion—its glassy waters scarcely curve upon the shore—the fishing-boats in the tiny harbour are all stranded in the mud—our two colliers (our watering-place has a maritime trade employing that amount of shipping) have not an inch of water within a quarter of a mile of them, and turn, exhausted, on their sides, like faint fish of an antediluvian species. ”

“ The innumerable minute forms of life with which the sea swarms; the coral polyps, the shells, the sponges, and the animalculæ of all kinds, are constantly engaged in consuming the food they find, in reproducing themselves, and in dying. From the various matters brought down to the ocean by the rivers of the land, they secrete their shells or other coverings; and as generation after generation they die, these falling to the bottom form immense banks, or plains, which some future action of upheaval will bring above the surface to form the material for new continents or islands. ”

“ These are the oceanic regions known to the sailors as “thick waters,” the favourite resort of the whale and its concomitant creatures, whose food they furnish; the shark, and its attendants; the dolphins, porpoises, sword-fish and flying-fish; with other denizens of the water; and a like variety of dwellers in the air, hovering above the surface, either as the enemies of those below, or aids to assist them in composing the inscrutable “chain of destruction.” ”

“ We shall behold new wonders and riches when we investigate the sea-shore. We shall find both beauty for the eye and food for the body, in the varieties of shell-fish which adhere in myriads to the rocks or form their close dark burrows in the sands. In some parts of the world we shall see those houses of stone which the little coral-insect rears up with patient industry from the bottom of the waters, till they grow into formidable rocks and broad forests whose branches never wave and whose leaves never fall. ”