THE ARCTIC SEAS. 165 



after their arrival, these fishes were affected with a 

 kind of blindness, and that then many were taken 

 with the net ; but as they recovered their sight the 

 nets would not answer, and hooks and lines were 

 used."* In illustration of the great depth to which 

 the eye can penetrate in these seas, from the trans- 

 parency of the water, Captain Wood, who visited 

 Spitzbergen in 1676, observed that, at the depth of 

 four hundred and eighty feet, the shells on the bot- 

 tom were distinctly visible. 



The minute animals which constitute the food 

 of the Whales, form a very interesting subject of 

 contemplation. If any of my young readers have 

 ever been upon the sea, though only in a boat, a 

 few miles from the shore, they cannot fail to have 

 observed floating in the water some round masses of 

 transparent substance, like clear jelly, which alter- 

 nately contract and dilate their bodies, or sometimes 

 turn themselves, as it were, partly inside out. They 

 are of various sizes, from that of a large plate to a 

 microscopical minuteness; and some are set with 

 rings, within each other, like eyes, and some are 

 curiously fringed at the edge. These Medusa, or 

 Sea-blubbers, as they are familiarly called, form a 

 considerable portion of the Whale's food, many 

 species of them being abundant in its haunts. An- 

 other little animal occurs there in immense hosts, the 

 Clio borealis. which bears some slisrht resemblance 

 to a butterfly just emerged from the chrysalis, before 

 the wings are expanded. Near the head there is 

 on each side a large fin or wing, by the motions of 



* Edin. Journal of Science. 



