50 THE WHALEMAN S ADVENTURES. 



which the sailors graphically describe as sea- 

 blubber. The medusa is a soft, elastic, gelat- 

 inous substance, specimens of which may be 

 seen lying on our own shores, exhibiting no 

 signs of life, except that of shrinking when 

 touched. Beyond the Arctic Circle it increases 

 in an extraordinary degree, and is eagerly de- 

 voured by the finny tribes of all shapes and 

 sizes. By far the most numerous, however, of 

 the medusan races are of dimensions as small as 

 a pin's head; whilst some species', not observ- 

 able without a microscope, have been shown by 

 Captain Scoresby, to be the cause of certain 

 peculiar colours which occasionally tinge con- 

 siderable extents of the Greenland Sea. The 

 colour produced by the larger and more preva- 

 lent kind is olive- green, and the water is opaque 

 compared to that which bears the common cer- 

 ulean hue. 



These olive-coloured waters occupy about a 

 fourth of the Greenland Sea, or above twenty 

 thousand square miles, and hence the number 

 of medusan animalcules which they contain is 

 inconceivably great. Captain Scoresby, to whose 



