152 ON THE MEDUSjE. 



blood flows abundantly; but the obstinate combatants, with- 

 out appearing to feel their wounds, continue the fight until 

 their powers are completely exhausted. It is rare to see 

 one left dead on the field of battle, for their wounds are 

 observed to heal with inconceivable promptitude. The English 

 sailors attribute this to some peculiar qualities of the blubber, 

 the natural salve ; but it probably results from the obvious 

 influence this substance must have in excluding the air from 

 the wounds, and in arresting the bleeding. 



" During these murderous conflicts, the females remain in- 

 different spectators to the rage they have excited, and sub- 

 mit to the conqueror, who assumes the mastership of the herd. 

 The sailors call him the Bashaw, comparing him to the jealous 

 and despotic master of a Turkish harem. 



" The sun now approaching the antarctic hemisphere, the 

 heat increases, and the whole herd resumes the route to the 

 southward, there to remain till the return of frost compels 

 them again to resort to the more temperate coasts of the Isle 

 of King. Some individuals, however, are observed to stay 

 there throughout the summer ; but whether detained by infir- 

 mity, or loss of strength necessary for an extensive naviga- 

 tion, or by some other disposition which renders a greater 

 degree of heat essential to them, is uncertain. 



" The great migrations of the sea-elephant, however re- 

 markable they may be, are not peculiar to this species ; the 

 habit probably obtains with every tribe of seals. Influenced 

 by the same wants, these voyages take place in both hemi- 

 spheres at analogous periods, and in this respect the confor- 

 mity of habits is so great between the seals of the north ob- 

 served by Steller, and those we have been describing, as to 

 render it probable that these migrations are the same in all 

 the amphibious mammalia." 



[To be continued in our next Number.] 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS TOTHE HISTORY OF THE MEDUSA 

 OR SEA BLUBBERS, BY MM. PERON AND LESUEUR. 



[From the * Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle/ vol. xiv. page 219.] 



" Of all the Zoophytes which Nature has scattered over the 

 surface of the ocean, none are more numerous or more extra- 

 ordinary than those to which the great Linnaeus has given the 

 name of Medusas. Every sea supports different tribes of these 

 singular creatures : they live in the midst of the almost frozen 

 waters of Spitzbergen, of Greenland, and of Iceland; they mul- 

 tiply under the heat of the equator; and the great Southern 



