Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/329

Rh written upon their wings in characters as legible and enduring as any with which she has ever engraved the history of geological events upon the tablet of the rock.

555. The Andes older than the Dead Sea as an inland water.—The waters of Lake Titicaca, which receives the drainage of the great inland basin of the Andes, are only brackish, not salt. Hence we may infer that this lake has not been standing long enough to become briny, like the waters of the Dead Sea; consequently, it belongs to a more recent period. On the other hand, it will also be interesting to hear that my friend Captain [Francis] Lynch informs me that, in his exploration of the Dead Sea, he saw what he took to be the dry bed of a river that once flowed from it. And thus we have two more links, stout and strong, to add to the chain of circumstantial evidence going to sustain the testimony of this strange and fickle witness which I have called up from the sea to testify in this presence concerning the works of Nature, and to tell us which be the older—the Andes, watching the stars with their hoary heads, or the Dead Sea, sleeping upon its ancient beds of crystal salt.



560. Submarine scenery.—"We dive," says Schleiden, "into the liquid crystal of the Indian Ocean, and it opens to us the most wondrous enchantments, reminding us of fairy tales in childhood's dreams. The strangely branching thickets bear living flowers. Dense masses of meandrinas and astræas contrast with the leafy, cup-shaped expansions of the explanaries,'the variously-ramified Madrepores, which are now spread out like fingers, now rise in trunk-like branches, and now display the most elegant array of interlacing branches. The colouring surpasses everything; vivid green alternates with brown or yellow; rich tints of purple, from pale red-brown to the deepest blue. Brilliant rosy, yellow, or peach-coloured Nullipores overgrow the decaying masses, and are themselves interwoven with the pearl-coloured plates of the Retipores, resembling the most delicate ivory carvings. Close by wave the yellow and lilac fans, perforated