310 1*EMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



the nortli, and of their domestic animals *, (with 

 the exception of the rein-deer) depends, as it 

 does in a milder climate on the harvest of corn, 

 dried fish being the only substitnte for bread and 

 fodder among the people of the north. The more 

 simply organized inhabitants of the sea will lead us 

 to make some general remarks. 



We have recognized, in the equatorial ocean, a 

 laboratory of nature, where she causes lime-stone 

 to be produced or precipitated by Molliiscce, worms, 

 and especially Polypi. In the sea which washes 

 the Aleutian islands, animals of the same class are 

 no less numerous, at least, as far as concerns the 

 number of the individuals, and many of the species 

 are not less gigantic than in that zone, but the 

 production of lime-stone does not take place. 

 Among the Molliiscce, the cuttle-fish, {Sejna oc- 

 topus?) which is the most remarkable, grows to 

 a size, that really renders it dangerous to the 

 small bay dares of the natives, as it is able to over- 

 turn them, and justifies, in some degree, the fable 

 of the polypus, which is said to entwine ships in 

 its arms, and draw them to the bottom. There is no 

 great variety of testaceous animals, and if the num- 



* Inclined to make comparisons, we observe that Marco Polo 

 mentions, in the 4-6th chapter of the third book, of the country 

 of Aden (in the torrid zone) that even the horses, oxen, and 

 camels, all eat fish, as no herb appears above the soil, on ac- 

 count of the extreme heat. The cattle rather eat dried than 

 fresh fish. 



