52 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



taken in the cold water of that coast, they have a dehcious flavor 

 and are highly esteemed ; but w^hen taken in the w^arm vs' ater on 

 the other edge of the Gulf Stream, though but a few miles distant, 

 their flesh is soft and unfit for the table. The temperature of 

 the water at the Balize reaches 90*^. The fish taken there are 

 not to be compared with those of the same latitude in this cold 

 stream. New Orleans therefore resorts to the cool waters on the 

 Florida coasts for her choicest fish. The same is the case in the 

 Pacific. A current of cold water from the south sweeps the shores 

 of Chili, Peru, and Columbia, and reaches the Gallipagos Islands 

 under the line. Throughout this whole distance, the world does 

 not afford a more abundant or excellent supply of fish. Yet out 

 in the Pacific, at the Society Islands, where coral abounds, and the 

 water preserves a higher temperature, the fish, though they vie in 

 gorgeousness of coloring with the birds, and plants, and insects of 

 the tropics, are held in no esteem as an article of food. I have 

 known sailors, even after long voyages, still to prefer their salt 

 beef and pork to a mess of fish taken there. The few facts which 

 we have bearing upon this subject seem to suggest it as a point 

 of the inquiry to be made, whether the habitat of certain fish does 

 not indicate the temperature of the water ; and w^hether these cold 

 and warm currents of the ocean do not constitute the great high- 

 ways through which migratory fishes travel from one region to 

 another. 



Navigators have often met with vast numbers of young sea- 

 nettles (medusae) driftmg along with the Gulf Stream. They are 

 known to constitute the principal food for the whale ; but whither 

 bound by this route has caused much curious speculation, for it 

 is well known that the habits of the right whale are averse to the 

 warm waters of this stream. An intelligent sea-captain informs 

 me that, two or three years ago, in the Gulf Stream on the coast 

 of Florida, he fell in with such a " school of young sea-nettles as 

 had never before been heard of." The sea v as covered with them 

 for many leagues. He likened them, in appearance on the water, 

 to acorns floating on a stream ; but they were so thick as to com- 

 pletely cover the sea. He was bound to England, and was five 

 or six days in sailing through them. In about sixty days after- 

 ward, on his return, he fell in with the same school off the West- 

 ern Islands, and here he was three or four days in passing them 



