120 THE INHABITANTS OP THE SEA. 



the bountiful sea teems with fishes, affording abundance to the 

 hungry seals.. The Merlcmgus pola/ris and the Ophidism 

 Parryti in the northern hemisphere, as well as the Nothothenia 

 phocce, which Dr. Richardson discovered off Kerguelen's Land, 

 seek in vain to escape from the pursuit of the seals in the 

 hollows and crevices of the pack-ice ; and these small fish, in 

 turn, fare sumptuously upon the minute crustaceans and mol- 

 luscs with which those cold waters abound. Thus animal life, 

 but sparingly diffused over the barren land, luxuriates in the 

 sea, where we find one species preying upon the other, until at 

 last, at the bottom of the scale, we come to creatures so small 

 as to be invisible to the naked eye. 



The Greenland Esquimaux, whose ice-bound fatherland affords 

 no food but berries, is also obliged to look to the sea for his 

 subsistence ; and the seal plays as important a part in his 

 humble existence as the reindeer among the Laplanders, or the 

 camel among the Bedouins of the desert. Its flesh and fat 

 form his principal food ; from its skin he makes his boat, his 

 tent, his dress; from its sinews and bones, his thread and 

 needles, his fishing line, and his bow-strings. Thus on the 

 frozen confines of the Polar Sea, as in many other parts of the 

 world, we find the existence of man . almost entirely depending 

 upon that of a single class of animals. But the Bedouin who 

 tends the patient dromedary, or the Laplander who feeds on 



Esquimaux in Ms Kayak. 



the flesh and milk of the domesticated reindeer, enjoys an easy 

 life when compared to the Esquimaux, who, to satisfy the cravings 

 of his sharp appetite, is in all seasons obliged to brave all the 

 perils of the Arctic Ocean. Sometimes he waits patiently for 

 hours in the cold fog until a seal rises to the surface, or else he 

 warily approaches a herd basking or sleeping on the ice blocks, 



