TUE SALTS OF THE SEA. 203 



with the microscope, lie finds in the surface water alongside; 

 and though he has been following the sea for many years, he 

 never fails to express his wonder and amazement at the immense 

 numbers of living creatures that the microscope reveals to him in 

 sea water. Hitherto his examinations related only to the surface 

 waters, but in the log now before me he went into the depths, 

 and he was more amazed than ever to see how abundantly 

 the waters even there bring forth. '-'January 2Sth, 1855. — In 

 examining animalculas in sea water, I have," sa3"s he, "heretofore 

 used surface water. This afternoon, after pumping for some 

 time from the stern pump seven feet below the surface, I ex 

 amined the water, and was surprised to find that the fluid was 

 literall}^ alive with animated matter, embracing beautiful varieties." 

 Of some he says, " Numerous heads, purplej red, and variegated." 

 There is wonderful meaning in that word abundantly, as it 

 stands recorded in that Book, and as it is even at this day 

 repeated by the great waters, a striking instance of which has 

 been furnished by Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer Eoyal of 

 Edinburgh, during his voj^age in 1856, on an astronomical 

 expedition to Teneriffe. On that occasion he fell in with the 

 annual harvest of medusas (§ 160) that are sent by the Gulf 

 Stream to feed the whales. His description of them (§ 161) has 

 already been quoted. According to the computation made by 

 him, it appears that each one of these sea-nettles, as they are 

 sometimes called, had in his stomachs not less than five or six 

 millions of flinty shells, the materials for which their builders 

 had collected from the silicious matter which the rains washed 

 out from the mountains, and which the rivers bring down to the 

 sea. The medusae have the power of sucking in the sea water 

 slowly, drop by drop, at one end, and of ejecting it at the other. 

 From this they derive both food and locomotion ; for in the 

 passage of the water, they strain it, and collect the little 

 diatomes. Imagine, then, how many drops of water in the 

 sea, which, though loaded with diatomes, never pass through 

 the stomach of the medusas. Imagine how many the whale must 

 gulp down with every mouthful of medusas. Imagine how deep 

 and thickly the bottom of the sea must, during the process of 

 ages, have become covered with the flinty shells of these little 

 creatures. And then recollect the command which was given to 

 the waters of the sea on the fifth day, and we may form some 

 idea of how literally they have obeyed this order, bringing forth 



