INFLUENCE OF THE GULF STREAM UPON CLIMATES. 55 



72. It may well be questioned if our Atlantic cities and towns 

 do not owe their excellent fish-markets, as well as our watering- 

 places tlieir refreshing sea-bathing in summer, to this stream of 

 cold water. The temperature of the Mediterranean is 4° or 5° 

 above the ocean temperature of the same latitude, and the fish 

 there are, for the most part, very indifferent. On the other hand, 

 the temperature along our coast is several degrees below that of 

 the ocean, and from Maine to Florida our tables are supplied with 

 the most excellent of fish. The sheep's-head, so much esteemed 

 in Virginia and the Carolinas, when taken on the warm coral banks 

 of the Bahamas, loses its flavor, and is held in no esteem. The 

 same is the case with other fish : when taken in the cold water 

 of that coast, they have a delicious flavor and are highly esteemed ; 

 but when taken in the warm water on the other edge of the Gulf 

 Stream, though but a few miles distant, their flesh is soft and un- 

 fit 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 (§ 455) 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 Pa- 

 cific, at the Society Islands, where coral abounds, and the water 

 preserves a higher temperature, the fish, though they vie in gor- 

 geousness 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 in- 

 quiry to be made, whether the habitat of certain fish does not in- 

 dicate the temperature of the water ; and whether these cold and 

 warm currents of the ocean do not constitute the great highways 

 through which migratory fishes travel from one region to another. 

 Why should not fish be as much the creatures of climate as 

 plants, or as birds and other animals of land, sea, and air ? In- 



