THE SEA.

How little we realize of the riches of the sea. No man has fathomed its lowest depths, or gone down into the caverns of the ocean to behold the unknown treasures of the deep. We have only explored the margin or outskirts of this mighty realm, examined its edges which are within our reach, without the hope even of ever penetrating into the secret recesses of this mighty element, that covers more than half the globe and defies even the plummet to sound its most hidden abyss. The narrow fringe that skirts the shore is our only field of research and discovery. From this we must judge of the whole, and can only imagine the wonders that will forever lie hidden from. our view.

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear."

The smallest flower that blooms in the desert may perchance attract and delight the eye of man. Mungo Park, exhausted and ready to perish amidst the burning sands of Africa, discovered, as he was about

yielding to despair, a little flower blooming at his feet, and took new courage from the thought that the Providence that caused the flower to bloom would not forsake him in his hour of peril, when human effort seemed of no further avail. Thus comforted he renewed his efforts, and owed his life to the smallest flower that blooms in the desert.

But what human eye will ever look upon the flowers that blossom thousands of feet below the surface of the sea? Were they made then for man, or intended in any way to promote his happiness? Colors as bright and as gorgeous are to be found deep down where the "purple mullet and gold fish rove," as in the cultivated garden or the Western prairie, yet they are not intended for the eye of man. We are forced to give up the idea, so pleasing, that the lower order of animals and all inanimate nature was made for man, and to minister in some way to his wants and his pleasures, to gratify his senses, his animal desires, or his love of beauty. If this were so, why were the countless forms of beauty created to exist and to die, far beyond the reach of human eyes, in the deep and inaccessible caves of the sea?

Man has diligently explored those parts of the sea which are accessible to him, and finds ample reward in the treasures he brings to light. No small part of his food is taken from the water, in the shape of almost innumerable varieties of fish, or of shell fish.

He lights his dwelling with oil, furnished by the whale, in pursuit of which "every sea is vexed with our fisheries." From the same source we have the whalebone, now doubled in price to answer the demands of crinoline. The humble oyster, clinging to the rocks off the Island of Ceylon, and even in the streams of our own New Jersey, furnish the pearls that adorn the heads and dresses of the fashionable and wealthy. Red coral beads, in which children delight, as well as coral ornaments for those of larger growth, come from the sea, and from the same Mediterranean is brought the sponge which serves so useful a purpose in the domestic economy.

The sea furnishes a vast variety of aquatic birds for our tables, seal skins for our use, the Iceland moss of which we make blanc mange, and the kelp with which we enrich our fields. The ocean is hardly less abundant in wealth than the land, and contributes in many ways to the comfort and happiness of man.

The naturalist finds the bottom of the sea crowded with animal and vegetable life, almost equalling in genera and species that which is found on land. You may now buy a rich and brilliant bouquet, picked from fields on which the sun has never shone, or enrich your cabinet with marine shells, glowing with all the colors of the rainbow. The sea is one great storehouse of life, every drop filled with living beings invisible to the naked eye. Life and death are the

great laws of the universe. The shell fish fulfils his mission and gives place to his successor; so does the insect that lives but a day, and so does man, who stands at the head of animated beings, and whose little span is extended, at most, to four score and ten years. The same great laws govern the inhabitants both of sea and land. The sea itself has its limits, beyond which it cannot go, and so of the infinity of life it contains. Both growth and decay form the endless circle in which organic and inorganic life revolves.

Of all the inhabitants of the deep the fabulous serpent is that which most excites our curiosity. That there must be a vast many species of animals in the unknown depths of the sea, which no man has ever seen, we cannot doubt any more than we can doubt the existence of countless varieties of marine plants which no naturalist has ever or ever will discover. The existence of a serpent, corresponding in size to those found on land and to the immensity of the ocean itself, is what we should expect and deem almost certain, though we had never seen it. Every probability is in favor of its existence, excepting only the improbability arising from its having never been seen. Many declare, however, that they have seen it, and under circumstances that rendered it impossible for them to have been deceived or mistaken. These witnesses, too, are men accustomed to the sea, and to all the

sights which appear on its surface. The probability of its existence is thus vastly strengthened, since we have direct and positive testimony to that which, without testimony, we should expect and feel justified in believing.

We may conclude, therefore, that the sea serpent is not a fabulous animal, but that he exists and has a home in the profound depths of the sea, as the Boa Constrictor is found only in the forests of a few tropical regions. The habits of the serpent, like those of other animals, confine him to the deepest parts of the ocean, while he is, occasionally, from some unknown cause, found straying from his native haunts, out of his latitude, and exposed to the wondering eyes of man, from whom he quickly escapes, in obedience to the instincts of his nature, and retreats to his fathomless home. We know but little of the wonders of the deep. The sea, like heaven and earth, contains, no doubt, many things never dreamed of in our philosophy. We live on its shores and explore its secrets a few miles from land, but we know nothing of its immense and boundless depths that lie hidden forever from our sight. We are unable to grasp its immensity even in imagination. Of all objects in nature it is the most vast and the most incomprehensible,"boundless, endless and sublime."