THE OPEN SEA IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 177 



is a cold-water animal, and, following up this train of thought, the 

 question is prompted, Is the nurserj for the great whale in this 

 Polar sea, which has been so set about and hemmed in with a 

 hedge of ice that man may not trespass there? This providential 

 economy is still farther suggestive, prompting us to ask. Whence 

 comes the food for the young whales there? Do the teeming 

 waters of the Gulf Stfeam (§ 74) convey it there also, and in chan- 

 nels so far down in the depths of the sea that no enemy may way- 

 lay and spoil it on the long journey ? 



485. Seals were sporting and water-fowl feeding in this open 

 sea of Dr. Kane's. Its waves came rolling in at his feet, and dash- 

 ed with measured tread, like the majestic billows of old ocean, 

 against the shore. Solitude, the cold and boundless expanse, and 

 the mysterious heavings of its green waters, lent their charm to 

 the scene. They suggested fancied myths, and kindled in the ar- 

 dent imagination of the daring mariners many longings. 



486. The temperature of its waters was only 36° ! Such warm 

 water could get there from the south only as a current far down 

 in the depths below. The bottom of the ice of this eighty miles 

 of barrier was no doubt many — perhaps hundreds of — feet below 

 the surface level. Under this ice there was also doubtless water 

 above the freezing point. 



Nor need the presence of warm water within the Arctic circle 

 excite surprise, when we recollect that the cold waters of the 

 frigid zone are transferred to the torrid without changing their 

 temperature perhaps more than 7° or 8° by the way. This trans- 

 fer of cold waters for a part of the way may take place on the sur- 

 face, and until the polar flow (§ 14) dips down and becomes sub- 

 marine. At any rate, Professor Bache reports that his assistants 

 on the Coast Survey have found water at the bottom of the Gulf 

 Stream, in latitude 25° 30^ K, as low in temperature as 35°. 

 ISTow, if water flowing out of the polar basin at the temperature of 

 28° may, by passing along the secret paths of the sea, reach the 

 Gulf of Mexico in summer at a temperature of only 3° above the 

 freezing point, why may not water, leaving the torrid zone at a 

 temperature of 85°, and traveling by the same hidden ways, reach 

 the frigid zone at the temperature of 36° ? 



M 



