42 



ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



Yet more noticeable are the jelly-fish, or medusae, 

 of these regions, which, indeed, along with the 

 cetacean giants, who either directly or indirectly 

 derive their subsistence from them, constitute the 

 main and characteristic zoological feature of the 

 Arctic province. The minuter medusae throng the 

 icy seas in countless myriads, and their abundance 

 and exceeding beauty have attracted the attention 

 of all northern voyagers. Great shoals of them are 

 met with discolouring the water for a vast extent, 

 Scoresby observed that the colour of the Greenland 

 sea varies from ultramarine blue to olive green, and 

 from the purest transparency to striking opacity, 

 appearances which are not transitory but perma- 

 nent. The green semi-opaque water mainly owes 

 its singular aspect to minute medusae, and infusorial 

 animals. It is calculated to form one-fourth part of 

 the surface of the Greenland sea, between the paral- 

 lels of 74° and 80°. It is liable to alterations in its 

 position from the action of the current ; but is 

 always renewed, near certain situations, from year 

 to year. Long bands or streams of it, having a 

 direction of north and south, or north-east and 

 south-west, sometimes extending two or three de- 

 grees of latitude in length, and having a breadth of 

 from a few miles to fifteen leagues, are met with. 

 The whales throng in this muddy water, for to them 

 it is good wholesome soup, nourishing enough, as 

 may be judged from the curious calculation of the 

 observant voyager I am quoting. " The number of 



