234 THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF NOVA SCOTIA : 



and 73 deg. north latitude, is also found in our waters. I could add 

 other instances in support of my views, but those I have given 

 will, I trust he sufficient to enable you to form some idea of their cor- 

 rectness. 



A great question with Naturalists has been as to whether certain 

 fishes inhabiting the seas of Europe and north-east America are identical 

 in regard to species, and if identical how they managed to traverse 

 two or three thousand miles of ocean from their original home. Now, 

 if we can prove the arrival at our shores of fishes from distant latitudes, 

 by means of the great ocean currents, which as highways, or I should 

 say, seaways, pass as it were our own doers; may we not conclude that 

 these very currents or seaways are the means oi affording a communi- 

 cation from or to either side of the Atlantic. And while some of the 

 Carribean types may be earned by the Gulf Stream to our shores, and on 

 to Europe, the European types can be carried to our shores by the Arctic 

 current, which setting from North Europe to Spitzbergen,. washes the- 

 east coast of Greenland, and passing Iceland arrives at our position. 



Some species are more adapted than others from their peculiar for- 

 mation to wander about the broad expanse of ocean, and like the hawk 

 among birds cleaving the air, propel themselves at a prodigious rate 

 through their watery element. Naturalists are therefore prepared in 

 some measure for the occurrence of such forms in situations where no 

 currents prevail. The most violent storms at sea cannot effect the 

 migration of fishes, even if they blow from a direction contrary to that 

 of the fish's course, for observations prove that the gale which agitates 

 the surface to so great an extent, is- not perceptible at a comparatively 

 small depth, and on the principle that migratory birds are generally 

 known to take their course at a great elevation, in order to escape the 

 agitation of the air near the earth's surface, so we may presume that, 

 these wandering fishes, gifted with similar instinct, avoid the currents 

 and counter currents of the ocean surface by stemming their way at a. 

 depth free from such circumstances. But in case of species known more 

 particularly as inhabitants of the littoral zone, and not endowed with a for- 

 mation favourable for extensive migration, I may instance the Blennies or 

 Gobioidce-, which are chiefly found in shore waters, rock pools, and 

 among sea-weed — we must look to some other agpney than the. mere 

 motive power of the fish itself. Now, during my investigations in the 

 Bermudian waters, I found that the gulf weed (Fucus nutans) which is 

 brought to that latitude from the Bahamas, on the eastern current, and 

 being thrown aside, as it were, drifts along from and to all points of the 

 compass as the winds blow, is a perfect preserve for the naturalist, being 

 tenanted by various species of crustaceans, and affording shelter and 

 food to several kinds of fishes. To give an idea of the vast extent of the 

 fields of this gulf weed which float upon the ocean about the latitude of the 

 Bermudas, I may state, that when a southerly gale blows for several days, 

 the whole coast line of the Islands facing that quarter, becomes choked 



