Mr Scoresby m the Colmr t^ihe Greentand Sea. IS 
^, 887 , 872 ; and a cubical mile about SSjSSS^OOO^OOOjOOO^OOO ! 
jProm soundings made in the situation where these animals were 
found, it is probable the sea is upwards of a mile in depth ; but 
whether these substances occupy the whole depth is uncertain. 
Provided, however, the depth to which they extend be but ^0 
fathoms, the above immense number of one species may occur 
in a space of two miles square. It may give a better concep- 
tion of the amount of medusae in this extent, if we calculate the 
length of time that would be requisite, with a certain number 
of persons, for counting this number. Allowing that one 
person could count a million in seven days, which is barely 
possible, it would have required, that 80,000 persons should 
have started at the creation of the world, to complete the enu- 
tneration at the present time ! 
What a stupendous idea this fact gives of the immensity of 
creation, arid of the bounty of Divine Providence, in furnishing 
such a profusion of life in a region so remote from the habita- 
tions of men ! But if the number of animals in a space of two 
miles square be so great, what must be the amount requisite for 
the discoloration of the sea, through an extent of perhaps 
twenty or thirty thousand square miles ! 
These animals are not without their evident economy, as on 
their existence possibly depends the being of the whole race 
of mysticete, and some other species of cetaceous animals. 
For, the minute medusae apparently afford nourishment to the 
sepiae, actiniae, cancri, helices, and other genera of Mollusca 
and Aptera, so abundant in the Greenland Sea, while these' latter 
constitute the food of several of the whale tribe inhabiting the 
same region 5 thus producing a dependent chain of animal 
life, one particular link of which being destroyed, the whole 
must necessarily perish. 
Besides the minute medusae and moniliform substances, the 
water of the Spitzbergen Sea, taken up in latitude 77 ° 30', was 
found to contain several species of animalcules. Of these I dis- 
covered three kinds, full of animal life, but invisible to the naked 
eye. 
There can be no doubt, I think, after what has been advan- 
ced, that the medusae and other minute animals that have been 
described, give the peculiar colour to the sea, whicli is observed 
