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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
57
[Picture:
Nymphon
Abyssorum,
Norman]
You
may
find
also
a
quaint
little
shrimp,
Caprella,
clinging
by
its
hind
claws
to
sea-weed,
and
waving
its
gaunt
grotesque
body
to
and
fro,
while
it
makes
mesmeric
passes
with
its
large
fore
claws,—
one
of
the
most
ridiculous
of
Nature’s
many
ridiculous
forms.
Those
which
you
will
find
will
be
some
quarter
of
an
inch
in
length;
but
in
the
cold
area
of
the
North
Atlantic,
their
cousins,
it
is
now
found,
are
nearly
three
inches
long,
and
perch
in
like
manner,
not
on
sea-weeds,
for
there
are
none
so
deep,
but
on
branching
sponges.
These
are
but
two
instances
out
of
many
of
forms
which
were
supposed
to
be
peculiar
to
shallow
shores
repeating
themselves
at
vast
depths:
thus
forcing
on
us
strange
questions
about
changes
in
the
distribution
and
depth
of
the
ancient
seas;
and
forcing
us,
also,
to
reconsider
the
old
rules
by
which
rocks
were
distinguished
as
deep-sea
or
shallow-sea
deposits
according
to
the
fossils
found
in
them.
[Picture:
Caprella
spinosissima,
Norman]
As
for
the
new
forms,
and
even
more
important
than
them,
the
ancient
forms,
supposed
to
have
been
long
extinct,
and
only
known
as
fossils,
till
they
were
lately
rediscovered
alive
in
the
nether
darkness,—
for
them
you
must
consult
Dr.
Wyville
Thomson’s
book,
and
the
notices
of
the
“Challenger’s”
dredgings
which
appear
from
time
to
time
in
the
columns
of
“Nature;”
for
want
of
space
forbids
my
speaking
of
them
here.
But
if
you
have
no
time
to
read
“The
Depths
of
the
Sea,”
go
at
least
to
the
British
Museum,
or
if
you
be
a
northern
man,
to
the
admirable
public
museum
at
Liverpool;
ask
to
be
shown
the
deep-sea
forms;
and
there
feast
your
curiosity
and
your
sense
of
beauty
for
an
hour.
Look
at
the
Crinoids,
or
stalked
star-fishes,
the
“Lilies
of
living
stone,”
which
swarmed
in
the
ancient
seas,
in
vast
variety,
and
in
such
numbers
that
whole
beds
of
limestone
are
composed
of
their
disjointed
fragments;
but
which
have
vanished
out
of
our
modern
seas,
we
know
not
why,
till,
a
few
years
since,
almost
the
only
known
living
species
was
the
exquisite
and
rare
Pentacrinus
asteria,
from
deep
water
off
the
Windward
Isles
of
the
West
Indies.
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