What myriads has the microscope revealed to us of the rich luxuriance
of animal life in the ocean, and conveyed to our astonished senses
a consciousness of the universality of life! In the oceanic depths
every stratum of water is animated, and swarms with countless hosts of
small luminiferous animalcules, mammaria, crustacea, peridinea, and
circling nereides, which, when attracted to the surface by peculiar
meteorological conditions, convert every wave into a foaming band of
flashing light.