Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/84

58 those delicate shell-fish and coral formations which are altogether wanting in the same latitudes along the shores of South Carolina. The same obtains in the west coast of South America; for there the immense flow of polar waters known as Humboldt's Current almost reaches the line before the first sprig of coral is found to grow. A few years ago, great numbers of bonita and albercore—tropical fish— following the Gulf Stream, entered the English Channel, and alarmed the fishermen of Cornwall and Devonshire by the havoc which they created among the pilchards. It may well be questioned if the Atlantic cities and towns of America do not owe their excellent fish-markets, and the watering-places their refreshing sea-bathing in summer, to this littoral stream of cold water. The temperature of the Mediterranean is 4° or 5° above the ocean temperature of the same latitude, and the fish there are, for the most part, very indifferent. On the other hand, the temperature along the American coast is several degrees below that of the ocean, and from Maine to Florida, tables are supplied with the most excellent of fish. The sheep's-head of this cold current, so much esteemed in Virginia and the Carolinas, loses its flavour, and is held in no esteem, when taken on the warm coral banks of the Bahamas. The same is the case with other fish: when taken in the cold water of that coast, they have a delicious flavour, and are highly esteemed; but when taken in the warm water on the other edge of the Gulf Stream, though but a few miles distant, their flesh is soft and unfit for the table. The temperature of the water at the Balize reaches 90°. The fish taken there are not to be compared with those of the same latitude in this cold stream. New Orleans, therefore, resorts to the cool waters on the Florida coasts for her choicest fish. The same is the case in the Pacific. A current of cold water (§ 398) from the south sweeps the shores of Chili, Peru, and Columbia, and reaches the Galapagos Islands under the equator. Throughout this whole distance, the world does not afford a more abundant or excellent supply of fish. Yet out in the Pacific, at the Society Islands, where coral abounds, and the water preserves a higher temperature, the fish, though they vie in gorgeousness of colouring with the birds, and plants, and insects of the tropics, are held in no esteem as an article of food. I have known sailors, even after long voyages, still to prefer their salt beef and pork to a mess of fish taken there. The few facts which we have bearing upon