KDWARDSj ON LIVING FORMS IN HOT WATERS. 247 



cross now and then over the shadowy march is allowable, if 

 not imjiossible to be avoided. 



Finally, you will allow me to remark that, in all the annals 

 of biology, I know nothing more strange than the curious 

 tale I have unfolded : the diatom staining the broad frozen 

 sea, again supporting myriads of living beings which crowd 

 there to feed on it, and these again supporting the huge 

 whale, — so completing the wonderful cycle of life. Thus it 

 is no stretch of the imagination to say that the greatest 

 animal in creation,* whose pursuit gives employment to many 

 thousand tons of shipping and thousands of seamen, and the 

 importance of which is commercially so great that its failure 

 for one season was estimated for one Scottish port alone at a 

 loss of £100,000 sterling, t depends for its existence on a 

 being so minute that it takes thoiisands to be massed toge- 

 ther before they are visible to the naked eye ; and, though 

 thousands of ships have for hundreds of years sailed the 

 Arctic, iniknown to the men who were most interested in its 

 existence ; illustrating in a remarkable degree how nature is 

 in all her kingdoms dependent on all — and how great are 

 little things ! 



On the Occurrence of Living Forms in the Hot Waters 

 of California. By Arthur Mead Edwards. 



(In a letter to the Editors of the ' Am. Jour. Sci.,' dated 49, Jane Street, 



N. Y., Jau. 23, 1868.) 



In the May (1866) number of the 'American Journal of 

 Science' were some notes by Prof. Brewer on the occurrence 

 of living forms in the hot and saline waters of California, in 

 which a slight error appeared, tending to mislead naturalists 

 more particularly with regard to certain observations of mine. 

 In the subsequent number for November Prof. Brewer inserted 

 a note making a correction in this matter, but, as the subject 

 is one of importance, I have taken the liberty of putting 

 together a few notes relating thereto, and beg of you to in- 

 sert them at your convenience. 



* Nilsson, in his ' Skandinaviske Eauna,' vol. i, estimates the full-grown 

 B. wysticetus, at 100 tons, or 220,000 lbs., or equal to 88 elephants or 442 

 wliite bears. 



■\ In 1807 the twelve screw steamers of Dundee only took two whales, 

 and the loss to each steamer was estimated at £5000, and to the town in all 

 at the sum I have given. 



