546 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



The economy of these little creatures, as consti- 

 tuting the foundation of the subsistence of the 

 largest animals in the creation, has already been 

 noticed. The common whale feeds on medusae, 

 cancri, actiniae, sepiae, &c. and these feed probably 

 on the minor medusae and animalcules. The fin- 

 whales and dolphins feed principally on herrings, 

 and other small fishes. These subsist on the small- 

 er cancri, medusge, and animalcules. The bear's 

 most general food is probably the seal ; the seal 

 subsists on the cancri, and small fishes ; and these 

 on lesser animals of the tribe, or on the minor me- 

 dusae and animalcules. Thus the whole of the 

 larger animals depend on these minute beings, 

 which, until the year 1816, when I first entered on 

 the examination of the sea-water, were not, I be- 

 lieve, known to exist in the polar seas. And thus 

 we find a dependent chain of existence, one of the 

 smaller links of which being destroyed, the whole 

 must necessarily perish. 



It is not a little interesting to trace the physio- 

 logy of the preservation of these smaller animals. As 

 the mean temperature of the atmosphere in the 

 Spitzbergen Sea, has been shewn to be 10 or 12 

 degrees below the freezing point of salt-water, it is 

 evident, that, were the water of the sea stationary, 

 it must, in the course of ages, be frozen to the bot- 

 tom, and along with it, as a matter of course, all 

 the smaller animals, not having sufficient instinct or 



