"[72]
To the biologist the pack is of absorbing interest. If you want to see
life, naked and unashamed, study the struggles of this ice-world, from
the diatom in the ice-floe to the big killer whale; each stage essential
to the life of the stage above, and living on the stage below:
THE PROTOPLASMIC CYCLE
Big floes have little floes all around about 'em,
And all the yellow diatoms[73] couldn't do without 'em.
Forty million shrimplets feed upon the latter,
And _they_ make the penguin and the seals and whales
Much fatter.
Along comes the Orca[74] and kills these down below,
While up above the Afterguard[75] attack them on the floe:
And if a sailor tumbles in and stoves the mushy pack in,
He's crumpled up between the floes, and so they get
_Their_ whack in.
Then there's no doubt he soon becomes a Patent Fertilizer,
Invigorating diatoms, although they're none the wiser,
So the protoplasm passes on its never-ceasing round,
Like a huge recurring decimal ... to which no
End is found.[76]
We were early on the scene compared with previous expeditions, but I do
not suppose this alone can explain the extremely heavy ice conditions we
met.
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