nearer. SUBMARINE FORESTS AND MEADOWS. 193 Now, creeping along, we saw, far beneath, the rugged sides of a mountain, rising towards our boat, the base of which, perhaps, was hidden some miles in the great deep below. Though moving on a level surface, it seemed almost as if we were ascending the height under us; and when we passed over its summit, which rose in appearance to within a few feet of our boat, and came again to the descent, which on this side was suddenly perpendicular, and overlooking a watery gulf, as we pushed gently over the last point of it, it seemed almost as if we had thrown ourselves down this precipice, the illusion, from the crystal clearness of the deep, actually producing a sudden start. Now we came again to a plain, and passed slowly over the submarine forests and meadows which appeared in the expanse below; inhabited, doubtless, by thousands of animals, to which they afford both food and shelter,-animals unknown to man; and I could sometimes observe large fishes of singular shape gliding softly through the watery thickets, unconscious of what was moving above them. As we proceeded the bottom became no longer visible; its fairy scenes gradually faded to the view, and were lost. in the dark green depths of the ocean." CHAPTER XIX. THE FLOATING NAVIGATORS OF THE OCEAN. "Spread, tiny nautilus, the living sail, Dive at thy choice, or brave the freshening gale! If unreprov'd the ambitious eagle mount Sunward, to seek the daylight in its fount, Bays, gulfs, and ocean's Indian widths shall be WORDSWORTH. MONG the most interesting and poetical illustrations of the wonders of the ocean are the singular floating animals, of which the Nautilus-called by Byron "the ocean Mab," "the Fairy of the Sea"-will be, undoubtedly, familiar to you from the great beauty of its shell, which renders it a favourite ornament in many houses. Very pretty stories and verses have been written on the sailing and rowing habits of these curious animals; and their appearance, when seen skimming the water, would strongly favour such ideas. The Dutch naturalist, Rumphius (who died in 1706), writing in the year previous to his decease, and giving an account of the rarities at Amboyna, the principal of the Molucca islands, says, "When the nautilus floats on the water, he puts out his head and all his tentacles, and spreads them upon the water; but at the bottom he creeps in a reversed position, with his boat above him, and with his head and tentacles (feelers) on the ground, making a |