Occasionally, in
shallow or warm seas, marine floating plants, large and visible like
the sea-weeds of the coast, form the floating masses known as Sargasso
seas; more often the plants are minute, microscopic specks visible
only when a drop of water is placed under the microscope, but
occurring in incredible numbers, and, like the green vegetation of the
earth, forming the ultimate food-supply of all the living things
around them. Innumerable animals, great and small, live on the plants
or upon their fellows, and, however far he may be from land, the
naturalist has always abundant material got by his daily use of the
tow-net. This drifting population floats at the mercy of the waves.
Most of the animals are delicate, transparent creatures, their
transparency helping to protect them from the attacks of hungry
fellows. Nerves, muscles, skin, and the organs generally are clear,
pale, and hardly visible. Such structures as the liver, the
reproductive organs, and the stomach, which cannot easily become
transparent, are grouped together into small knots, coloured brown
like little masses of sea-weed. Other floating creatures are vividly
coloured, but the hues are bright blues and greens closely similar to
the sparkling tints of sea-water in sunlight.
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