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Fnrji a Painting bv Bade
The Deep Sea Angler (Gigantactis Vanhoejfeni)
r. t the end of a long slender antenna this denizen of the
depths carries a strong flashlight with which it searches
out its prey.
tlarkness. Naturally enough, all of the
fishes inhabiting this semi- or total darkness,
have been greatly modified in regard
to vision. While in some instances
the eyes have become very small, in
others they have entirely disappeared,
while again in many, the skin and scales
have grown over where naturally the
eyes should be found.
Strange to say, other species of these
ultra-submarine creatures, have been
affected by the lack of light in quite an
opposite manner, for instead of being
doomed to blindness, or very tiny eyes at
best, their organs of sight have greatly
increased in size, as if in attempt to catch
any feeble rays of light that might remain
to them. In some cases this has
been carried to such an extreme, that the
eyes have become like huge goggles.
In one shape or another, most of the
deep-sea fishes are possessed of
luminous organs, so that they
manufacture their own light, this
characteristic answering much
the same purpose as the powerful
headlight of a motor-car. In
some varieties, the whole body
glimmers, the coating of slime
that exudes from the pores and
lateral canals, emitting a soft
silvery glow. Other species have
flashing lights on the head, and
rows of luminous organs running
along the sides of the
bodies. When we think of these
wonderful creatures, moving
silently through the blackness
ELECTRIC-EYED SEA MONSTERS 251
of the secluded abysses of the deep,
we can conjure in our minds some fain
craft, sailing noiselessly through the
night, her tiny searchlight lighting her
unknown path, and her port holes aglow,
twinkling in the darkness, as she makes
for her unknown, uncharted harbor.
There are some of these fishes, the
Angler fish being a typical example, that
carry a luminous organ at the end of a
long antenna-like tentacle attached to
the head. This is waved to and fro as a
lure to attract its prey.
We are now confronted by a most pertinent
question: How do these fishes
glow and glimmer, since no human eye
has ever beheld them in their sable
homes? On those sultry nights in the
tropics, when the black clouds hang so
low that sky and sea blend in utter darkness,
and over all prevails a perfect calm.
it is then that one sees glimmering fishes,
darting out from the path of the boat,
their silvery, ghostlike forms silhouetted
for a fleeting moment against the ebon
sea.
This effect is mainly due to the oxidiz- '
ing of the slimy secretions covering their
bodies. Why therefore, shall we not
readily believe that a similar phenomenon
obtains with the deep-sea fishes, with
their highly evolved slime pores and
canals, wdiich of necessity must exude
these secretions in large quantities? As
a matter of fact, this has been plainly
oiu a Paintintr by Bade
The U-Boat of the Deep iGizantura Ckuni)
This is one of the most fiercely carnivorous of all deep sea
monsters.