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LUSITANIAN PROVINCE. 



we know from authentic records. Unfortunately 

 our knowledge of the indigenous animals of the 

 3and ; and the creatures which live in the seas and 

 on the shores of the western islands, is not so com- 

 plete, — indeed is, for all purposes of geographical 

 comparison, singularly deficient. This, then, is a 

 field, if properly treated, open to important disco- 

 very, and for an energetic naturalist, sufficiently 

 versed in marine zoology to qualify him for the 

 task, having time at his disposal and the means to 

 meet the expenses which the nature of the investi- 

 gations would demand, there can scarcely be a 

 nearer, pleasanter, and more compact district for 

 monographic study. The only creatures of the 

 natural history of the Azorean seas that have at- 

 tracted attention are the Medusas, which appear to 

 abound in their neighbourhood. These creatures 

 would seem to accumulate here in vast numbers. 

 Lieutenant Wilkes, of the United States Navy, the 

 energetic and able conductor of the great Ameri- 

 can exploring expedition, ingeniously suggests re- 

 lations between this gathering of the floating ra- 

 diata and the habits and distribution of the sperm 

 whale, an animal which is fished in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Azores.* He remarks that these islands 

 lie in the course of the great north polar stream, 

 and form an obstruction to its passage, arresting 

 and accumulating the creatures which constitute 

 the whale's food. The Medusas, thus swept south- 

 * " Am. Ex. Exp. Narrative," vol. v. p. 482. 



