Tropical sea

“ A few of them came to grief on hidden sandbanks and coral reefs, losing their all and barely escaping with life from the cruel grip of this sunny and smiling sea; others got discouraged; and for many years the green and peaceful-looking islands guarding the entrances to the promised land kept their secret with all the merciless serenity of tropical nature. ”

“ If a storm arises, the whole creation seems to be dissolving. No words can be found adequate to describe the scene, or in any measure to convey the frightful experience the sailor has to undergo. But on the other hand, in clear and calm weather, the tropical sea 171 presents an aspect of gorgeousness and grandeur, with which the loveliest natural scenery of a northern climate cannot compare. ”

“ Hence the surface of the tropical islands is more heated during the day than the sea that surrounds them, and cools more in the night by its greater elevation: whence in the afternoon when the lands of the tropical islands have been much heated by the sun, the air over them ascends pressed upwards by the cooler air of the incircling ocean, in the morning again the land becoming cooled more than the sea, the air over it descends by its increased gravity, and blows over the ocean near its shores. ”

“ For instance, the tropical waters of the high ocean levels, which lie abreast Brazil in the Atlantic and the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, are not attracted far into the southern sea, because the surface waters of the latter sea are blown by the westerly winds from west to east around the globe. ”

“ Meeting no land in this long oblique track over the tepid waters of a tropical sea, it would, if such were its route, arrive somewhere about the meridian of 140° or 150° west, at the belt of equatorial calms, which always divides the north-east from the south-east trade-winds. Here, depositing a portion of its vapour as it ascends, it would, with the residuum, take, on account of diurnal rotation, a course in the upper region of the atmosphere to the south-east, as far as the calms of Capricorn. ”

“ Little by little the low-lying clouds ascend like a drawn up curtain, and the whole island lay spread out, a living panorama, to our view. But alas! we passengers were not permitted to leave the ship, and as soon as we had taken in provisions and water, the anchor was lifted and we held on our way towards the south.
As in all lands lying in the warm latitudes, the works of nature are found in greater and more vigorous beauty than beneath our colder and melancholy skies, so also do the tropical seas present appearances never seen in the northern waters. ”

“ Sea-urchins and star-fish crawl lazily along the valleys and the uplands of the coral reef. The surface of the sea is itself [xiii] covered with ceaselessly moving waves reflecting a tropical luxuriance of color. From well-known localities hundreds of fishermen gather spoil for the sustenance of life for themselves and their friends. ”

“ Remote alike on one side from the moderating tropical rains, on the other from the equalizing influences of the sea, destitute of high mountain chains and extensive forests to draw down and retain moisture, the whole expanse is virtually a naked plain, basking under a semitropical sun. ”

“ The several interesting points raised by this botanist are discussed in Chapter XXXIII.
The Beach-Drift of Tropical Latitudes. Tropical beaches, as a rule, present a much greater abundance and variety of stranded seeds and fruits than we find on beaches in temperate latitudes. Observers in different parts of the tropics have alluded to the enormous amount of vegetable drift floating in the sea off the coasts, particularly in the vicinity of estuaries. Though much of it is brought down by rivers, a good proportion is also derived from the luxuriant vegetation that lines the beaches. ”

“ It has been tacitly assumed that all marine organisms coming from regions bordering the equator must have lived under tropical conditions; but deep-sea research has shown that all conditions of temperature and of light prevail at their several depths in tropical as well as other seas ”

“ There is no more entrancing body of water in either the Western or the Eastern Hemisphere—than the Caribbean Sea, with a fringe of lovely tropical islands on the one side and on the other the Spanish Main and its picturesque centuries-old towns and fascinating sights. ”

“ The land and sea winds of tropical coasts show a well-marked relation to the position of the sun and the hour of sunset, and in places where these winds blow the hours of calm and change should be noted. ”

“ But the larger number of species, particularly the more massive kinds, occur only in tropical seas in shallow waters, whose mean temperature does not fall below 68° Fahr., and they do not flourish unless the temperature is considerably higher. ”

“ These beautiful creatures are found in tropical seas. They are abundant in the Gulf of Mexico, and they are often carried by the Gulf Stream into Northern waters. Occasionally they drift upon our own shore. ”

“ On all the tropical seas, between the terminal lines of the two trade-winds, there is what is called the belt of calms, a tract averaging from 300 to 500 miles wide, in which, whatever winds there may be, are exceedingly light and unreliable. It is here, as we have seen, that the air and vapor, heated by the vertical rays of the sun, are continually rising and spreading outward in the upper regions. ”

“ PAGE 112 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.
and continues on toward the coast of South America, in the same direction, appearing now as the prevailing northwest wind of the extra-tropical regions of the southern hemisphere. Traveling on the surface from warmer to colder regions, it must, in this part of its circuit, precipitate more than it evaporates.
202. Now it is a coincidence, at least, that this is the route by which, on account of the land in the northern hemisphere, the northeast trade-winds have the fairest sweep over that ocean. ”

“ Thus we have found strong reason for regarding temperature as exerting a most important influence in favouring, not merely increase of size, but specialization of development; all the most complicated and specialized forms at present known being natives either of tropical or of sub-tropical seas, and many of these being represented in the seas of colder regions by comparatively insignificant examples, which there seems adequate reason for regarding as of the same specific types with the tropical forms, even though deficient in some of their apparently most important features. ”

“ Not twenty feet in front, where grass grows to the water’s edge at highest tide, the sands, sparkling under blazing sunrays, are frilled by the lazy edges of the surf; and the flawed tourmaline of the reef-waters, pale green, or dull pink from underlying coral patches, stretches to the low white line of breakers on the barrier reef some half-mile seaward, while farthest beyond lies the peacock-blue ribbon of the deep-sea horizon. ”

“ The very bottom of the deep bays near shore—dark and eternally silent, prisoned under the restless waste of waters—is thickly carpeted with strange and many-coloured forms of animal and vegetable life. But the beaches and tide-pools over which the moon-urged 130 tides hold sway in their ceaseless rise and fall, teem with marvels of Nature’s handiwork, and every day are restocked and replanted with new living objects, both arctic and tropical offerings of each heaving tidal pulse. ”

“ A person who has never been in the South Seas cannot appreciate the pleasure of gliding along a tropical bay, just close enough to see the small grass villages and the dense jungles behind; the seas breaking over the coral reefs ahead, and the pure blue waters underneath; the tropical birds flying overhead, and canoes paddling along the shores. ”

“ OUR story opens in that broad, far-reaching expanse of water which lies deep and blue between the two hemispheres, some fifteen degrees north of the equator, in the latitude of Cuba and the Cape Verd Islands. The delightful trade winds had not fanned the sea on a finer summer's day for a twelvemonth, and the waves were daintily swelling upon the heaving bosom of the deep, as though indicating the respiration of the ocean. ”

“ From the blue ocean rises a mass of green palms. The sunlight glows in the green. It somehow even seems to turn the sunlight green. Against the dark blue of the sea and the light blue of the sky, the sunlight seems to be drawing the green island out of the water, and the soft south wind carries the scent of flowers far out to sea. It is the greeting of the island, and we inhale it deeply.
Here was a typical coral atoll—the kind you dream about. A circular reef studded with waving palms and within the reef a lovely, placid lagoon. ”

“ The long Atlantic swell was rolling heavily against the bluff promontories, and the surf lashing far up the black heights, giving many of us a nervous disinclination to making a night expedition among the rocks, going to sleep with a dirty shirt and mouthful of sand, without even the consolation of being afterwards laid out in clean linen, to make luncheon for vultures; but since it takes a complication of those diversions to compose a veritable sea life, we banished perspective danger, and indulged in speculations upon the pleasures of port. ”

“ The dark blue water, the reflection of a clear blue sky, rolled in tiny ripples to the green copse wood or golden sand which edged the shore. A white foam, the precursor of sea breeze, was cresting every tiny wavelet that came into the lovely bay; beyond the ample bosom of which the Caribbean sea spread in vast immensity away, till lost in distance, haze, and the purple glow of the set sun. ”

“ When it comes on dark we feel the wind roaring louder about us, and we hear the cries of those who are in other trees. Then far out on the reef we hear the pounding of the sea and the waves begin more and more to come over the atoll until they cover it deeper and deeper, and each succeeding wave climbs higher and higher toward where we cling. We know that soon there will come a wave whose teeth will tear us from the tree. ”

“ As one sails, at a distance of two or three miles, along this wild, beautiful coast, the picture presented by the fringe of feathery palms over the white line of surf, the steep slopes of the foot-hills, shaggy with dark-green tropical vegetation, and the higher peaks broken in places by cliffs or rocky escarpments and rising into the region of summer clouds, is one hardly to be surpassed, I think, in the tropics. ”

“ Purplish or bluish masses of coast slowly develop green surfaces; folds and wrinkles of land turn brightly verdant. Still, the color gleams as through a thin fog.
... The first tropical visitor has just boarded our ship: a wonderful fly, shaped like a common fly, but at least five times larger. His body is a beautiful shining black; his wings seem ribbed and jointed with silver, his head is jewel-green, with exquisitely cut emeralds for eyes.
Islands pass and disappear behind us. The sun has now risen well; the sky is a rich blue, and the tardy moon still hangs in it. ”

“ The shores are everywhere a maze of coves and inlets, in which land and water are interlaced; and over all—the mainland and the islands alike—the wild riot of tropical vegetation holds its sway, defying the efforts of man to tame it to trimness. Even within the limits of the city, which stretches for about four miles along the shore, four or five coves present a ceaseless variety of outline. ”

“ These northerly flowing waters are the cold waters of the Southern Ocean travelling into the equatorial regions, where they are warmed and supply the current which passes westerly and southerly through the Indian Ocean, attaining its greatest velocity as it passes through the Mozambique Channel, thence round the Cape of Good Hope, and north-westerly through the Carribean Sea to form the Gulf stream, which takes a north-easterly course to impart their warm, genial climate to the British islands. ”

“ As the monsoon draws near, the days become more overcast and hot, banks of clouds rise over the ocean to the west, and in the peculiar twilight the eye is attracted by the unusual whiteness of the sea-birds that sweep along the strand to seize the objects flung on shore by the rising surf. ”

“ Words cannot convey an idea of what it is under this tropic sun and sky, with the silver-flashing wavelets rippling the surface of the sapphire sea, beneath whose clear warm waters brilliant fishes are darting through the coral groves. ”

“ From this time, till we left the torrid zone, we were almost daily amused with the view of immense shoals of these fishes, and now and then caught one upon our decks when it had unfortunately taken its flight too far, and was spent by its too great elevation above the surface of the sea. In the uniform life which we led between the tropics, where we found weather, wind, and sea, almost constantly favourable and agreeable, the mind catched at every little circumstance that could give the hint to a reflection. ”

“ For the seed and fruits lying at the bottom of the sea-water we have to appeal to other agencies than to that of the currents if we wish to inquire into their means of arriving at this island. In imagination we leave the reef-lined shores for the interior, and exchange the exhilarating surroundings of a coral beach, where “the sky is always blue and the wind is always true,” for the arid conditions of an inland plain, or for the humid conditions of the forest, where the rain is incessant and the cloud-cap and mist seemingly eternal. ”

“ For the coast-dwellers, the sea-shore, with the rocks which are the refuge of the shell-fish, is the inexhaustible playground of the children. Looking down in the clear deep water of the archipelago they see the coral reefs, the bright flower-gardens of marine plants, and shoals of striped, banded, crimson-tailed, and green-finned fish, which, in the eastern seas, glitter with tints of gold and silver. ”