A Few Taken Together Are Sufficiently Strong To Support
The Weight Of The Large Loose Stones, To Which In The Inland
Channels They Grow Attached; And Yet Some Of These Stones
Were So Heavy That When Drawn To The Surface, They Could
Scarcely Be Lifted Into A Boat By One Person.
Captain Cook,
in his second voyage, says, that this plant at Kerguelen Land
rises from a greater depth than
Twenty-four fathoms; "and
as it does not grow in a perpendicular direction, but makes a
very acute angle with the bottom, and much of it afterwards
spreads many fathoms on the surface of the sea, I am well
warranted to say that some of it grows to the length of sixty
fathoms and upwards." I do not suppose the stem of any
other plant attains so great a length as three hundred and
sixty feet, as stated by Captain Cook. Captain Fitz Roy,
moreover, found it growing [7] up from the greater depth of
forty-five fathoms. The beds of this sea-weed, even when
of not great breadth, make excellent natural floating
breakwaters. It is quite curious to see, in an exposed harbour,
how soon the waves from the open sea, as they travel through
the straggling stems, sink in height, and pass into smooth
water.
The number of living creatures of all Orders, whose existence
intimately depends on the kelp, is wonderful. A great
volume might be written, describing the inhabitants of one
of these beds of sea-weed.
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