| Show THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA BY W S WALLACE When you are playing on the seashore and pick up the empty shells the little dried crab skeleton or those curious sea purses which look like tiny brown pillows tied al the corners do you ever think of what they arc why they arc always dead and where they came from The bottom of the 1 sea begins at the beach really and Is at first quite shallow shal-low sloping downward under those roaring breakers that roll Into shore But this Is not the sea floor nor Is It half as beautiful or interesting even I though there IB the yellow sand to lend u charm entirely absent from the true bottom Suppose we prelend to take a walk under the sea Dyers are the only men who have i really visited tho sea lloor and they cannot go very rut down These men have described the wonders beneath the blue sea waves the brilliant colors strange forma and curious lights and I shadows to bo seen down there I The fishes have a world of their own not unlike this earth of ours In Its general divisions although 11 Is so different I I dif-ferent in appearance They have their I forests and their mountains and most I curious of all their vegetable gardens Of course In the shallow water there Is light from the sun streaming down I through the sea But as the water overhead gets deeper and the sunlight struggles through it In fainter rays a great darkness slowly gathers around ua while the fishes at first quite small and harmless now get larger stranger and fiercer with every step we lake We are walking on sand but It Is not the clean breakerwashed sand of the sesg i rr I 1 t j 1v tS rR crrn rmR s 1 t t A I QI I I L + 4r T A r i f4rt Lvf A i r k fl t fCf a f Z a C i 1 t rr GtIr l I raft r-aft f11 1 J i aV 1 lc Sho Mounted Into tho Air i beach we have left behind but a muddy gray or blue colored sand mixed wllh shells stones and bits of anlrnal mailer The seaweed Is very hard to get through It grows so thick and high Here we see a huge sea lettuce like a great hunch of real lettuce light green In color and each leaf standing quite Kllll by Itself A little further on a great single stalk like a small tree trunk shoots Into tho water above us Its rools entangling the other sea plants about 1t1 This single leaf may be compared to a huge blade of grass only Imagine a blade of grass between sixty and 160 feet long These are called lamlnarla fronds and their tops float on the surface of tho sea no matter how deep the water IP I Beyond this we come to a beautiful grove of sea cabbages and sea kale whose curious red leaves are as thin and as tough ac rubber Between and around these larger plants which lake the place of trees on shore we find smaller seaweeds of delicate blue green yellow brown and purple colors How beautiful What gorgeous colors and all set off by the dull emerald color of the salt water und the plain end at our feet But now we are entering a region of shadows There Is less sunlight The objects become misty and vague the colors grow dim and less vivid For even the clearest water becomes thick and filled by floating particles when there Is a mile of water up ovurheud But there Is light after all not tram the sun but from yonder fish A large ltunthah r as WW fl AftfgS CPmcj rQg ly 1 toward us Ills whole body shines like a malch rubbed gently In the dirk Did you ever rub your handn with matches and then go in a dark closet lo see them shine This strange fish shines exactly as your hands do giving off clouds of bluish smokellke light And behind him cornea a wonderful procession pro-cession of living birds Some day wo will describe these lights of the sea They are all alive all swimming about In the dark sea Fishes and creators not fishlike but of all shapes some like lloaling vases others like chains of pearls others Btlll who look like real flrcllles with wingshundreds of different dif-ferent kinds The whole sea now glows with yellow yel-low and green lights Even the bottom level as the floor of a room Hashes fire as we walk and In our path huge crabs five feel across scuttle away their backs glowing like live coals We go on our way deeper and deeper Now the lights become less numerous and we come suddenly to o great cliff In the sea a precipice whose bottom we cannot discover A vast hole In the sea floor yawns before us and In this waste of water thousands oC great fishes whirl In circles playing with each others tails or darting Intent on a good meal after their smaller relations rela-tions We do not dare to explore that great and mysterious cavern but while we wait a largo shark whleks over the edge and dives down Into the darkness He Is + fully twentylive feet long and the smaller fish scalier before him He Is gone We return toward the shal low water and come out on the beach having discovered In our makebellevo walk where the empty shells the little fragments of seaweed and the bones of fishes that slrew thc sea beach really I l come from Could we only atop breath Ing for a single day what a wonderful world of curious odd and beautiful 1 creatures we would be able to describe to our friends after our return On other Sundays wo will describe some of the animals and plants which live beneath be-neath the sea beginning near the shore and going down to places HO far below the waves that It would take over an hour for a penny dropped from the surface to reach the bottom |
