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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
96
Now
away,
and
as
a
specimen
of
the
fertility
of
the
water-world,
look
at
this
rough
list
of
species,
{140c}
the
greater
part
of
which
are
on
this
very
stone,
and
all
of
which
you
might
obtain
in
an
hour,
would
the
rude
tide
wait
for
zoologists:
and
remember
that
the
number
of
individuals
of
each
species
of
polype
must
be
counted
by
tens
of
thousands;
and
also,
that,
by
searching
the
forest
of
sea-weeds
which
covers
the
upper
surface,
we
should
probably
obtain
some
twenty
minute
species
more.
A
goodly
catalogue
this,
surely,
of
the
inhabitants
of
three
or
four
large
stones;
and
yet
how
small
a
specimen
of
the
multitudinous
nations
of
the
sea!
From
the
bare
rocks
above
high-water
mark,
down
to
abysses
deeper
than
ever
plummet
sounded,
is
life,
everywhere
life;
fauna
after
fauna,
and
flora
after
flora,
arranged
in
zones,
according
to
the
amount
of
light
and
warmth
which
each
species
requires,
and
to
the
amount
of
pressure
which
they
are
able
to
endure.
The
crevices
of
the
highest
rocks,
only
sprinkled
with
salt
spray
in
spring-tides
and
high
gales,
have
their
peculiar
little
univalves,
their
crisp
lichen-like
sea-weed,
in
myriads;
lower
down,
the
region
of
the
Fuci
(bladder-weeds)
has
its
own
tribes
of
periwinkles
and
limpets;
below
again,
about
the
neap-tide
mark,
the
region
of
the
corallines
and
Algæ
furnishes
food
for
yet
other
species
who
graze
on
its
watery
meadows;
and
beneath
all,
only
uncovered
at
low
spring-tide,
the
zone
of
the
Laminariæ
(the
great
tangles
and
ore-weeds)
is
most
full
of
all
of
every
imaginable
form
of
life.
So
that
as
we
descend
the
rocks,
we
may
compare
ourselves
(likening
small
things
to
great)
to
those
who,
descending
the
Andes,
pass
in
a
single
day
from
the
vegetation
of
the
Arctic
zone
to
that
of
the
Tropics.
And
here
and
there,
even
at
half-tide
level,
deep
rock-basins,
shaded
from
the
sun
and
always
full
of
water,
keep
up
in
a
higher
zone
the
vegetation
of
a
lower
one,
and
afford
in
nature
an
analogy
to
those
deep
“barrancos”
which
split
the
high
table-land
of
Mexico,
down
whose
awful
cliffs,
swept
by
cool
sea-breezes,
the
traveller
looks
from
among
the
plants
and
animals
of
the
temperate
zone,
and
sees
far
below,
dim
through
their
everlasting
vapour-bath
of
rank
hot
steam,
the
mighty
forms
and
gorgeous
colours
of
a
tropic
forest.
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