400 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



discovered at Kerguelen's Land, and named N'otothenia by Dr. Richardson. 

 These fish, which are of an elongated eel-like shape, conceal themselves from 

 the persecutions of their enemies in the smair cracks and cavities of the pack- 

 ice, and were frequently noticed by Sir James Ross when driven from shelter 

 by the ship as it struck and passed over their protecting pieces of ice. They 

 in their turn live upon the smaller cancri and Umacinae, and these again upon 

 creatures of a still more diminutive size, until finally the chain of created 

 beings terminates in the diatoms,* which are found filling these seas with the 

 minutest forms of organic life. 



* " The Sea and its Living Wonders," p. 403. 



