704 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



evidence, instead of one. The first link would be the shapeless Jan- 

 Mayen protoplasm, on which the formation of the diatom-slime occur- 

 ring farther south depends. It is evident that this sea-slime, which both 

 according to oiir and to former observations is found all over the Arctic 

 Ocean, plays a very important part in the large household of nature, 

 furnishing an unlimited quantity of organic food, which makes the ex- 

 istence of myriads of small animals — in our seas chiefly the " herring- 

 food" — possible. If we consider that these enormous masses of "her- 

 ring-food" are, as we have proved conclusively, an essential condition 

 of the great wealth of herrings, and these again of the wealth of cod- 

 fish and other fish on which the welfare of our coast-population depends, 

 it will become evident to every one that the question is a very impor- 

 tant one. 



In a recent interesting work on the fisheries of British North America, 

 by Professor Hind, of Halifax, in which credit is given to the practic.al 

 and scientific investigations made on our coasts, the great importance 

 of the sea-slime of the Polar Sea for the Labrador and Newfoundland 

 fisheries is clearly pointed out. It is certain that this sea-slime is of 

 the same great importance for our Northern Sea, and we even go 

 farther, and maintain that its far-reaching influence extends to every 

 sea. The last great British expedition on board the Challenger ob- 

 served similar sea-slime in the southernmost portion of the Atlantic, 

 increasing in quantity the nearer they came to the Southern Polar Sea. 

 This sea-slime seems everywhere to have its origin in the icy waters 

 near the poles, whence it is distributed by the currents of the sea to a 

 greater or less distance into the more temperate sea. We therefore 

 arrive at the very unexpected result, that the inhospitable icy sea of the 

 polar regions furnishes the fundamental condition of the inexhaustible 

 wealth of the more temperate seas. 



The origin of this primitive food is an unsolved problem. It is certain, 

 however, that it is found in largest quantities in places where the ice 

 melts under the influence of the summer warmth, and whalers are said 

 to have observed that the lower side of the melting and floating ice is 

 covered by a thick layer of a similar slime. Near the coast of North 

 America this sea-slime is brought direct by the polar current from the 

 Greenland Sea to Labrador and Newfoundland. On our coasts, which 

 are not under the direct influence of the polar current, but under that 

 of the warm, northeasterly Atlantic current, this addition of polar 

 water to our seas is less regular, but evidently takes place, as the sea- 

 slime from the Polar Sea was by our expedition observed in several 

 places, even as far south as the Vigten Islands. 



Eegarding the distribution of the " herring-food " in those parts of 

 the sea which we traversed, I must say that the great mass of this slime, 

 perhaps in consequence of steady northerly winds, seems to have been 

 driven unusually far south, as in the open sea betwen Jan-Mayen and 

 Norway there were for long distances only very small indications of its 



