THE HARVESTS OF THE SEA. 25 



It is supposed to be the periodical arrival of these 

 harvests of the sea which to a great extent regulates 

 the comings and goings of our principal food fishes ; 

 for Nature has fixed the sequence of the harvests 

 of the sea with as great regularity as she has those 

 of the land; probably therefore our supplies of fish 

 upon the British coasts are dependent upon this great 

 Gulf Stream. 



On this head the following remarks of Lieutenant 

 Maury are worth quoting: 



" Navigators have often met with vast numbers of Me- 

 dusae drifting along with the Gulf Stream; they are known to 

 constitute the principal food of the whale. An intelligent 

 sea-captain informs me that in the Gulf Stream off the coast 

 of Florida, he fell in with such a shoal as has never been 

 heard of. The sea was covered with them for many leagues. 

 He was bound to England, and was five or six days' sailing 

 through them." * Lieutenant Maury then proceeds to ex- 

 plain that, " The Gulf of Mexico is the harvest field, the 

 Gulf Stream the gleaner, which collects the fruitage planted 

 there, and conveys it thousands of miles to the hungry whale 

 at sea. But how perfectly in unison is this with the kind 

 Providence of that Great and Good Being who feeds the 

 young ravens when they cry, and caters for the sparrow." f 



The cushion of still water resting upon the floor of 

 the ocean has already been noticed, and a few words 

 respecting it and the nature of the bottom of this 

 immense region will complete this necessarily brief 

 survey of deep-sea phenomena. 



The secrets of the mighty deep until quite recently 

 had entirely baffled all attempts to investigate them, 



* The Physical Geography of the Sea, by Lieut. Maury, U.S.N., 

 1877, pp. 29 and 30, Sections 73 and 74. 

 f Ibid., p. 31. 



