512 CURRENTS AND WHALING. 



those I have quoted from the authority of others, scarcely leave a 

 doubt of, we may see the admirable provisions of nature by which 

 the Creator has regulated the fluid mass of the ocean, in its endless 

 gyrations seeking to attain a state of equilibrium which it never 

 reaches, at the same time and by the same course distributing the 

 excess of the tropical heats throughout the whole surface of the globe, 

 and bringing towards the equator the icy masses which would other- 

 wise accumulate in the frozen zones. 



But, putting aside the partial observations that have been detailed 

 in the preceding pages, relative to the direction and extent of the 

 great streams and currents of the ocean, whether surface or subma- 

 rine, the habits of the spermaceti whale alone would furnish strong 

 circumstantial evidence that such currents do exist, and that they 

 are variable in their strength, and even in direction, according to the 

 season. 



It is well known to whalers that the favourite and appropriate food 

 of the sperm whale is a gelatinous medusa ; which, however, has not 

 as yet received from naturalists much attention. It may, however, be 

 advanced as certain that this molluscous animal most abounds in the 

 higher latitudes of both hemispheres, which would therefore seem to 

 be the places in which it is produced, and to which its habits are best 

 adapted.* During our cruise in the higher southern latitudes, we 

 saw vast numbers of these medusae around and near the icebergs. 

 The quantity was such as to prove conclusively, that it was in the 

 waters of the temperature caused by the vicinity of these masses of 

 ice, that they delight to dwell. Whales were also in abundance, and 

 although principally of the fin-back species, sperm whales were not 

 entirely wanting. 



As regards the medusa, its powers of locomotion are feeble, and 

 confined chiefly to the purpose of rising and sinking at pleasure. If 

 polar currents exist, it must therefore be swept by them from the 

 place of its nativity, and in its passage to lower latitudes, will by its 

 locomotive power seek strata in the water of the low temperature to 

 which its constitution is best adapted. My attention was drawn to 

 the habits of the whales here in particular, from the novel manner 



* Innumerable animalcules, the appropriate food of the right whale, are also found 

 there, as has been seen by our own observations at the south, and those of Scoresby at 

 the north. 



