96 The Geographical Distribution of Fishes 
must explain the resemblance of the Arctic and Antarctic 
faunz, there being in no case a barrier in the sea that may not 
some time be crossed. Like forms lodge in like places. 
Agency of Ocean Currents.—We may consider again for a 
moment the movements of the great currents in the Pacific as 
agencies in the distribution of species. 
A great current sets to the eastward, crossing the ocean 
just south of the equator. It extends past Samoa and passes 
on nearly to the coast of Mexico, touching the Galapagos Islands, 
Clipperton Island, and especially the Revillagigedos. This 
may account for the number of Polynesian species found on 
these islands, about which they are freely mixed with immi- 
grants from the mainland of Mexico. 
From the Revillagigedos* the current moves northward 
and westward, passing the Hawaiian Islands and thence onward 
to the Ladrones. The absence in Hawaii of most of the charac- 
teristic fishes of Polynesia and Micronesia may be in part due 
to the long detour made by these currents, as the conditions 
of life in these groups of islands are not very different. North- 
east of Hawaii is a great spiral current, moving with the hands 
-of the watch, forming what is called Fleurieu’s Whirlpool. 
This does not reach the coast of California. This fact may 
help to account for the almost complete distinction in the shore 
fishes of Hawaii and California. 
No other group of islands in the tropics has a fish fauna 
so isolated as that of Hawaii. The genera are largely the 
ordinary tropical types. The species are largely peculiar to 
these islands. 
The westward current from Hawaii reaches Luzon and For- 
mosa. It is deflected to the northward and, joining a north- 
ward current from Celebes, it forms the Kuro Shiwo or Black 
Stream of Japan, which strews its tropical species in the rock 
pools along the Japanese promontories as far as Tokio, Then, 
turning into the open sea, it passes northward to the Aleutian 
Islands, across to Sitka. Thence it moves southward as a cold 
* Clarion Island and Socorro Island. 
+ A few Mexican shore fishes, Chetodon humeralis, Galeichthys dasycephalus, 
Hypsoblennius parvipinnis, have been wrongly accredited to Hawaii by some 
misplacement of labels. 
