. Ocean wonders: a companion for the seaside. en kinds of marine animals! Successiveobservers added their mites of observation, but knowledgeon this subject was of very slow growth, for, until the inven-tion of the microscope, the numerically largest division ofthese curious creatures were invisible; and we may say that,until the era of scientific expeditions and the invention of INTRODUCTORY. 5 machines for deep-sea dredging, thousands of curious formsof coral, shells, algse, and all their congeners, were never be-held by any human eyes. But the human imagination was never idle, though sci-en
. Ocean wonders: a companion for the seaside. en kinds of marine animals! Successiveobservers added their mites of observation, but knowledgeon this subject was of very slow growth, for, until the inven-tion of the microscope, the numerically largest division ofthese curious creatures were invisible; and we may say that,until the era of scientific expeditions and the invention of INTRODUCTORY. 5 machines for deep-sea dredging, thousands of curious formsof coral, shells, algse, and all their congeners, were never be-held by any human eyes. But the human imagination was never idle, though sci-ence has been so tardy in its marches; and those poeticalfancies, which conceived of mermaids and fairy-grottoes be-neath the bright sea-waves, were in many respects nearerto the truth than the so-called facts of some of the old natu-ralists, for certainly no fairy-land could exceed in beautymany of the gorgeous bowers formed by the combined pro-ductions of the marine flora and the animated dwellers inthe submarine depths of the tropical Shells of Living Foeaminifeea.—a, Orbulina universa, in its perfect condition, showingthe tubular spines which radiate from the surface of the shell; &, Globigerina bulloides,in its ordinary condition, the thin hollow spines which are attached to the shell when per-fect having been broken off; c, Textularia variabilis; d, Peneroplis planatus; e, Rota-Ua concamerata; ,f\ Crislellaria mbareuatula. Fig. a is after Wyville Thomson; theothers are after Williamson. All the figures are greatly enlarged (after Nicholson). 6 THE OCEAN. < In those masses known as macciotta an almost unnum-bered variety of garden and even forest-like structures areformed, consisting of polypiers, hydroids, corals, algse, andsea-anemones, of the most brilliant hues and graceful forms,which neither pen nor pencil can ever adequately describe. It must here be noted that modern facilities of observa-tion have greatly extended the area of animal life; not onlyin our
Size: 1708px × 1463px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectmarineanimals, bookye
