162 THE SPERMACETI WHALE. 



and fish are concerned, it is a fact that they hare 

 often heen found in the stomach after death, and so 

 constitute the occasional food of this whale. We 

 trould, however, venture to suggest to those who 

 /nay have opportunities of observing, whether this 

 whale may not also frequently resort to the me- 

 dusae and minute fish, which, in so remarkable a 

 manner, supply food to some of the smaller, as 

 well as to the other genera of the gigantic whales. 

 That there is an abundant supply of this provender, 

 both in the Antarctic Ocean and the more smiling 

 latitudes of the Southern Seas, can easily be proved 

 by a reference to Lesson's statements as on p. 149, 

 and also by other observations. Captain Colnett 

 on one occasion remarks, " The set of the currents 

 on the coast of Chili may at all times be disco- 

 vered, by noticing the direction of large beds of 

 small blubber with which the coast abounds, and 

 from which the water derives a colour like that 

 of blood: I have often been engaged for a whole 

 day in passing through various sets of them ;" and 

 again, when approaching the southern point of 

 America ; " during this forenoon we passed several 

 fields of spawn, which caused the water to bear the 

 appearance of barley covering the surface of a bank." 

 (Voyage, &c. p. 170 and 10.) Orbigny also re- 

 marks, that there are immense tracts off the coast of 

 Brazil filled with small creatures, so numerous as to 

 impart a red colour to the sea; large portions are 

 thus highly coloured, and receive from the whalers 

 the name of Bane du Bresil. This bank extends 



