The Sea and Its Living Wonders / A Popular Account of the Marvels of the Deep and of the Progress of Martime Discovery from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time

The work surveys the ocean's physical characteristics — extent, coasts, depths, waves, tides, currents, marine caves and the atmospheric processes that drive them — and describes human maritime constructions such as lighthouses and breakwaters. It then offers a popular natural-history account of marine life, treating whales, seals, seabirds, turtles, fishes, molluscs, jelly-like coelenterates, crustaceans, and microscopic organisms, and discusses their behaviors, distribution, and economic importance. Interwoven are accounts of fisheries, navigational and scientific discovery, and observable phenomena such as bioluminescence, supported by numerous illustrations intended to clarify structure and function.