THE ARCTIC SEAS. 165 
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 trans- 
parency of the water, Captain Wood, who visited 
Spitzbergen in 1676, observed that, at the depth of 
four hundred and eighty feet, the shells on the bot- 
tom were distinctly visible. 
The minute animals which constitute the food 
of the Whales, form a very interesting subject of 
contemplation. If any of my young readers have 
ever been upon the sea, though only in a boat, a 
few miles from the shore, they cannot fail to have 
observed floating in the water some round masses of 
transparent substance, like clear jelly, which alter- 
nately contract and dilate their bodies, or sometimes 
turn themselves, as it were, partly inside out. They 
are of various sizes, from that of a large plate to a 
microscopical minuteness; and some are set with 
rings, within each other, like eyes, and some are 
curiously fringed at the edge. These Meduse, or 
Sea-blubbers, as they are familiarly called, form a 
considerable portion of the Whale’s food, many 
species of them being abundant in its haunts. An- 
other little animal occurs there in immense hosts, the 
Clio borealis, 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 
* Edin. Journal of Science. 
