J 52 THE OCEA]^. 



which bears some slight resemblance to a butterfly 

 just emerged from the chrysalis, before the wings 

 are expanded. Near the head there is on each side 

 a large fin or wing, by the motions of which it 

 changes its place. These motions are amusing ; and 

 as the little creatures are so abundant, they mahe 

 the dreary sea quite alive with their gambols as 

 they dance merrily along. In swimming, the Clio 

 brings the tips of its fins almost into contact, first 

 on one side, then on the other : in calm weather they 

 rise to the surface in myriads, for the purpose of 

 breathing, but scarcely have they reached it before 

 they again descend into the deep. Mr. Scoresby kept 

 several of them alive in a glass of sea-water for 

 about a month, when they gradually wasted away 

 and died. The head of one of these little creatures 

 exhibits a most astonishing display of the wisdom ot 

 God in creation. Around the mouth are placed six 

 tentacles, each of which is covered with about three 

 thousand red specks, which are seen by the micro- 

 scope to be transparent cylinders, each containing 

 about twenty little suckers, capable of being thrust 

 out, and adapted for seizing and holding their minute 

 prey. " Thus, therefore, there will be three hundred 

 and sixty thousand of these microscopic suckers 

 upon the head of one Clio ; an apparatus for pre- 

 hension perhaps unequalled in the creation." 



Numerous as are the hosts of these frolicsome 

 little beings, there are, however, others which vastly 

 exceed them in number ; which pass, indeed, beyond 

 the possibility of human computation. Navigators 

 had often noticed, in certain parts of the Arctic Sea, 



