Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/86

60 of these creatures. They were in the form of hollow gelatinous lobes, arranged in groups of five or nine—each lobe having an orange vein down the centre. Thus each animal was formed of an aggregation of lobes, with an orange-coloured vein, or stomach, in every lobe. "Examining," says he, "in the microscope a portion of one of the orange veins, apparently the stomach of the creature, it was found to be extraordinarily rich in diatomes, and of the most bizarre forms, as stars, Maltese crosses, embossed circles, semicircles, and spirals. The whole stomach could hardly have contained less than seven hundred thousand; and when we multiply them by the number of lobes, and then by the number of groups, we shall have some idea of the countless millions of diatomes that go to make a feast for the medusæ—some of the softest things in the world thus confounding and devouring the hardest—the flinty-shelled diatomaceæ." Each of these "sea-nettles," as the sailors call them, had in his nine stomachs not less, according to this computation, than five or six millions of these mites of flinty shells, the materials of which their inhabitants had collected from the silicious matter which the rains washed out from the valleys, and which the rivers are continually rolling down to the sea.

162. The waters of the sea bring forth—oh how abundantly!—The medusæ have the power of sucking in the sea-water slowly, and of ejecting it again with more or less force. Thus they derive both food and the power of locomotion, for, in the passage of the water, they strain it and collect the little diatomes. Imagine, now, how many medusæ-mouthfuls of water there must be in the sea, which, though loaded with diatomes, are never filtered through the stomachs of these creatures; imagine how many medusæ the whale must gulp down with every mouthful; imagine how deep and thickly the bottom of the sea must, during the process of ages, have become covered with the flinty remains of these little organisms; now call to mind the command which was given to the waters of the sea on the fifth day of creation; and then the boasted powers of the imagination are silenced in their very impotency, and the emotions of wonder, love, and praise take their place.

163. Contrasts between the climates of land and sea.—The sea has its climates as well as the land. They both change with the latitude; but one varies with the elevation above, the other with the depression below the sea level. The climates in each