80 DISCOLORATION OF THE ARCTIC SEAS. 
by the pioneer prow of the early whalers they appeared like brown 
slimy bands in the sea, causing them to be mistaken more than once 
for the waving fronds of Laminaria longicruris (De la Pyl.) (which, 
and not L. saccharina, as usually stated, is the common tangle of the 
Arctic Sea). On examining the under surface of the upturned masses 
of ice, I found the surface honey-combed, and in the base of these 
cavities vast accumulations of Diatomacee, leading to the almost in- 
evitable conclusion that a certain amount of heat must be generated 
by the vast accumulations of these minute organisms, which thus mine 
the giant floes, so fatal in their majesty, into cavernous sheets. These 
are so decayed in many instances as to be easily dashed on either side 
by “ice chisels” of the steamers which now form the greater bulk of 
the Arctic-going vessels, and they get from the seamen, who too fre- 
quently mistake cause for effect, the familiar name of ‘rotten ice.” I 
find that, as far as the mere observation concerning the diatomaceous 
character of these slimy masses is concerned, I was forestalled by Dr. 
Sutherland (Appendix to ‘Penny’s Voyage,’ excviii. and vol.i. pp.91,96). 
is gives me an opportunity of remarking that though one diatom, as 
I have remarked, predominates, yet vast multitudes are there of many 
different species, and even protozoa are included; for though Dr. 
Sutherland expressly states that this brown slimy mass was principally 
composed of the moniliform diatom spoken of, yet Professor Dickie 
(now of Aberdeen) found in it also Grammonema Furgensii, Ag., Pleu- 
rosigma Thuringica, Kg., P. fasciola, Triceratium striolatum, Navicule, 
Surirelle, ete. Is it, therefore, carrying the doctrine of final causes 
too far to say that these diatoms play their part in rendering the frozen 
north accessible to the bold whalemen, as I shall presently show they 
do, in furnishing subsistence for the giant quarry which leads him 
ither ? 
I have spoken of the discoloured portions of the Arctic Sea as 
abounding in animal life, and that this life was nowhere so abundant 
as in these dark spaces which owe this hue to Diatomacee 
These animals are principally various species of Beroide, and other 
steganophthalmous Meduse ; Entomostraca, consisting chiefly of 4r- 
pacticus Kronii, A. chelifer and Cetochilus arcticus, septentrionalis ; and 
pteropodous mollusca, the chief of which is the well-known Clio 
borealis, though I think it proper to remark that this species does not 
contribute to the whales’ food nearly so much as we have been taught 
LÀ 
* 
