172 FOOTNOTES FROM 



in myriads among guano, the proclu6t of those vermiver- 

 ous shore-birds which inhabit the desolate islands of the 

 South Seas ; and on the tops of the highest British 

 mountains Ben Lawers, Ben Nevis, and Ben Macdhui 

 I have repeatedly gathered them in great quantities 

 from the black mud which is generally found under 

 masses of melting snow. The ice-bound seas of the 

 north are peopled by almost nothing else ; along with 

 various species of animalcules, they are the cause of that 

 peculiar olive-green tinge which extends over a portion of 

 the Arctic ocean, amounting to not less than 20,000 square 

 miles, every two miles of which, according to Scoresby's 

 estimate, comprehends 23,888,000,000,000,000, a 

 number which would have employed 80,000 persons 

 since the creation to reckon I 1 In the Antarctic Ocean, 

 on the other hand, far beyond the limits where even the 

 hardy lichen, moss, and sea-weed refuse to vegetate upon 

 the rocks, and where every circumstance would seem 

 inimical to the growth and propagation of even the 

 simplest plants, they occur in countless myriads on the 

 floating ice, and cover the sea with meadows of a pale- 

 brown hue, extending as far as th.6 eye can reach, and 

 down from the surface of the water to abysses deeper 



1 Scoresby says, " After a long run through water of the common blue 

 colour, the sea became green and less transparent. The ^colour was 

 nearly grass-green with a shade of black. Sometimes the transition be- 

 tween the green and blue water is progressive, passing through the inter- 

 mediate shades in the space of ten or twelve miles ; at others it is so 

 sudden that the line of separation is seen like the ripple of a current, and 

 the two qualities of water keep apparently as distinct as the waters of a 

 large muddy river on first entering the sea. In 1817, I fell in with such 

 narrow stripes of various coloured water, that we passed streams of pale- 

 green, olive-green, and transparent blue, in the course of ten minutes' 

 sailing." 



