150 THE OCEAN. 



mitted itself to be taken, and sucked down the throat 

 of a smooth-mouthed animal, without teeth to detain 

 and compress it." 



We know but little of the true fishes that inhabit 

 the Arctic Seas. It appears, however, that many of 

 the more important of those which are common with 

 us are common also there ; not the subjects of an 

 annual migration, but widely distributed at all times. 

 On the authority of a French naval officer, it would 

 even seem that some species at least may undergo 

 a sort of torpidity. " Admiral Pleville Lepley, who 

 had had his home on the ocean for half a century, 

 assured M. Lacepede tliat in Greenland, in the 

 smaller bays surrounded with rocks, so common on 

 this coast, where the water is always calm, and the 

 bottom generally soft mud and juice, he had seen in 

 the beginning of spring myriads of Mackerel, with 

 their heads sunk some inches in the mud, their tails 

 elevated vertically above its level ; and that the 

 mass of fish was such, that at a distance it might 

 be taken for a reef of rocks. The Admiral supposed 

 that the Mackerel had passed the winter torpid, 

 under the ice and snow, and added that, for fifteen or 

 twenty days after their arrival, these fishes were 

 affected with a kind of blindness, and that then many 

 were taken with the net ; but as they recovered their 

 sight the nets would not answer, and hooks and lines 

 were used."* In illustration of the great depth to 

 which the eye can penetrate in these seas, from 

 the transparency of the water. Captain Wood, who 



* Edin. Journa) of Science. 



