46 



ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



voyagers to Greenland. They range to our own 

 shores, and south of them, but are comparatively 

 scanty, and are scarcely observed even by our 

 fishermen, who, when they notice them, designate 

 them as " spawn." 



It appears probable that two of the most anoma- 

 lous of the swimming animals of the Ocean, species 

 of Sagitta and Briarea, are abundant in the Arctic 

 seas, though unrecorded by name. The former is, 

 as its name implies, an arrow-shaped creature ; it is 

 of exceeding simplicity of structure, and in shape 

 resembles, as it were, a miniature draught of a 

 Cetacean, for the regularly formed fin which ter- 

 minates its tail, is transverse, and the general 

 outline of its body bears out the comparison. It is 

 very minute, and perfectly transparent, resembling 

 an arrow of glass, and shooting through the water 

 with the rapidity of a dart. Its only hard parts 

 are the comb-like jaws with which its mouth is 

 armed. The creatures figured by Scoresby in his 

 Plate XVI. figs. 1 and 2, are evidently Sagittce, a 

 fact which does not appear to have been noticed by 

 commentators. The Briar ea is also a small and 

 transparent creature of glassy texture j it is fur- 

 nished with many lobes, each bearing two fin-like 

 expansions at their extremities, and has two long 

 tentacles which, being strengthened by cartilaginous 

 rods, it can bend stiffly back on its body in a most 

 dexterous fashion ; its internal organization is of the 

 simplest order. Briarece were met with plentifully, 



