56 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



deed, we know that some kinds of fish are found only in certain 

 climates. In other words, they live where the temperature of the 

 water ranges between certain degrees. 



73. Navigators have often met mth vast numbers of young sea- 

 nettles {mediisa3) drifting 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, several 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 was 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 

 again. He recognized them as the same, for he had never before 

 seen any like them ; and on both occasions he frequently hauled 

 up buckets full and examined them. 



74. Now the Western Islands is the great place of resort for 

 whales ; and at first there is something curious to us in the idea 

 that the Gulf of Mexico is the harvest field, and the Gulf Stream 

 the gleaner which collects the fruitage planted there, and conveys 

 it thousands of miles off to the hungry whale at sea. But how 

 perfectly in unison is it with the kind and providential care of that 

 great and good Being which feeds the young ravens when they 

 cry, and caters for the sparrow ! 



75. The sea has its climates as well as the land. They both 

 change with the latitude ; but one varies with the elevation above, 

 the other with the depression below the sea level. The climates 

 in each are regulated by circulation ; but the regulators are, on the 

 one hand, winds ; on the other, currents. 



76. The inhabitants of the ocean are as much the creatures of 

 climate as are those of the dry land ; for the same Almighty hand 

 which decked the lily and cares for the spaiTOW, fashioned also 



