THE ARCTIC MEDUS.E. 273 



culiarly graceful and elegant when floating in their native 

 element, from the delicate colours with which they are 

 adorned. The bodies of some among- them are of a lia-ht 



CD O 



azure blue, the border surrounded with the appearance of 

 golden beads like a coronet, from which stream in every 

 direction delicate threads of a bright carmine colour ; in 

 short, almost all those that are found in warmer climates have 

 something pleasing to the spectator, either in form or colour. 

 It is to the scientific observations of Captain Scoresby, 

 Jun., that zoologists possess any information of these inha- 

 bitants of the Frozen Seas ; for previous to his interesting 

 investigations in 1816, on the sea water, they were not sup- 

 posed to exist. 



The economy of these little creatures, as constituting the 

 foundation of the subsistence of the largest animals in the 

 creation, has already been mentioned. The common whale 

 feeds upon them, and perhaps these again on the minor 

 medusae and animalculae. The finned whales and dolphins 

 devour principally herrings and other small fishes. The 

 bear's general food is probably the seal, and the seal subsists 

 on the cancri and small fishes ; these again prey on others 

 smaller to themselves. Thus we find the whole of the 

 larger animals dependent on these minute beings, which 

 establish a chain of existence ; and were not the whole 

 chain beautifully supported, and one single link to give 

 way, the stupendous fabric must inevitably perish. 



It is the medusae and animalculae that give the green-olive 

 hue to the Arctic Ocean, and the number has been computed 

 to be almost beyond the power of human calculation.* 



As Captain Scoresby is the only author who has given 

 any account of these animals, I must extract a few observa- 

 tions respecting them from his " Account of the Arctic 

 Regions." The names which head them, I have given, as 

 this gentleman had not appended any to his accurate de- 

 scriptions. 



* Vide, page 24. 

 T 



