108 NATURAL HISTORY 



looms that ply their iron fingers to weave our 

 carpets were not a chance discovery by Bigelow 

 they were an invention, reached only by long- 

 continued systematic study. So of discoveries and 

 improvements in the vegetable kingdom in our day. 

 They must not be left to chance, but be sought for 

 under the guidance of science, where alone the 

 course is direct, the progress sure and rapid. 



Perhaps Zoology does not give promise of so rich 

 a return as Botany, in material wealth. We do not 

 expect to discover important animals for domestica- 

 tion, nor do we expect to add very many valuable 

 animal products to those now known, by the discov- 

 ery of new animals. So far as their products are 

 rendered more useful or increased in number, we 

 shall probably be indebted to Chemistry, rather than 

 to the pure science of Zoology. But there are im- 

 portant indirect advantages that may result from it. 

 The study of the structure of the whale renders it 

 highly probable that there is an open polar sea. It 

 is, as Professor Agassiz remarks, perfectly convin- 

 cing to the physiologist ; if the whales in winter are 

 not all south of the frozen belt, they must find open 



