Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1905-09-20
THE RESTLESS SEA.

THE RESTLESS SEA.
One of the bright boys who read
these notes wants US to write something
about the ocean, the wonderful waste
of waters of which he has read, but
has never seen. He has found out that
the sea covers large part of the face
of the earth and has history all Its
own. The ocean is many sided, its
moods mysterious, its power almost
Unreasonable. Ones first impression
Of it is that of its illimitable expanse,
that sense of infinity of space which
Gomez to us as we gaze at the stars In
a blue black sky on winters night,
a sense that here is something which
neither the changing seasons nor the
lapse and wear and tear of time can
ever affect, and with 1t all an over
powering sense of the utter insignifl-
canoe Of man. 1t has a language of its
own, an Incompatible music, giving as
1t is touched by the zephyr or the tenn
pest winds harmonies which run from
the lullaby Of summer sea to the an
CRY diapason Of storm swept waters.
Its restless bosom ever heaves even In
the calmest weather, the crested waves
as they break on quiet shores telling
Of storms and great winds which long
since died away, the tireless swell be-
ing the stored energy of the winds of
all attitudes. The murmur Of the sea
Is music to all land dwellers, whether
1t be the monotonous roll of breakers
on lee shore or the crash Of noun
tains of green water on beetling cliffs,
and one born to the music and moods
Of the ocean is ever their slave, more so
than is the Arab in love with the des-
ert or the hoodlum with the slums Of
the great city. 1t possesses wonder
full color scheme-blue as the heavens
Of June day when It smiles upon 1t,
grim, gray and gloomy when shrouded
with cloud rack and tempest, green Of
richest emerald as fair winds fieck It's
surface with whitecaps, black as night
when it shrinks from the impact of the
typhoon or the cyclone. 1t has, more
over, wonderful life of Its own, all
the myriad life Of the great deep-the
bird life which on tireless wings ever
circles the seattle frigate bird, the al
batross, Mother Carey's chickens and
the uncounted millions of sea birds
which live on it and in it and from it.
And then the life of the water itself
the uncanny monsters Of the deep, the
fish In endless type, some in such vast
schools as to be unbelievable. Then
the shell life-the mollusk in infinite
variety, with the walrus, the seal and
their kind which are at home on both
land and sea. Then there IL the deep
sea life-the queer things which live
In the ever dan and fathomIess abyss
Of the deep sea. While the land is
most prolific Of life, 1t is not more so
than the sea. The harvest Of the sea
Is as much a harvest as is the ingath-
ering Of the crops of the land. Millions
Of money and vast armies Of men are
associated with the fish harvest-the
salmon of the Pacific, the cod Of the
Banks, the herring Of the North sea,
the seals Of Newfoundland and Labra-
dor and Alaskan peninsula and the
oysters and Holsters Of the Atlantic
coast. For centuries the ocean sep
arated the peoples Of the earth, formed
the dividing lines between nations, be-
gat peculiar peoples and many tongues.
but in these latter days man has mas
tered 1t, and now the high seas have
become the worlds great highway Of
commerce and communication. Every
man and woman should see the ocean
before they die, for not to have seen It
in some Of the phases referred to is to
have missed the greatest sight in the
whole world.