
NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY, 383 
MICROSCOPY. 
Tae WHALr’s FOOD AND THE DISCOLORATION OF THE ARCTIC SEAS 
ade on his 
rent scientific voyages to the Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen Sea, and 
G 
even the immense mass of diatomaces would sink down a few feet, and 
again, without apparent cause, rise to the surface. At a depth of two 
hundred fathoms the water was free from diatoms, though at the time the 
of the towing net was dyed with them as it skimmed along the 
Surface, 
-> That these diatoms also accumulate under the floes of ice, as it was 
found that the brown slimy masses adhering to the under surface of the 
ice Was almost wholly composed of this diatom. It was also found that 
rar men, as I will hereafter show it does, by furnishing substance to 
Ti rry which leads him hither. ; 
of the € food of the Balena mysticetus Linn. was found to consist wholly 
_ minute animals swarming in these discolored portions; the other 
Pan living on fishes and other highly developed tissues. 
mals consisted of Entomostraca, of which the principal were 
cticus, and C. septrionalis, Pteropoda, of which the chief is the 
fi "own Clio borealis (which it ought, however, to be remarked 
tenet an item in the food of the whale, as is usually supposed), 
oa igation 
“pecies in question, and afterwards the same was remarked of the 
Smaller mollusca. 4 % 

