THE INTERMEDIATE FOODS OF THE SEA 1 69 



food for other, though fewer, animals which hve still further 

 down, in perpetual night. The oceanic animals, largest as 

 well as smallest at the surface, extend downward for an in- 

 definite distance becoming less and less, varied and gradually 

 scarcer and more uniform in size; probably, indeed, no level 

 of the sea is entirely without them. 



As food becomes scarcer with increasing depth the free- 

 swimming animals necessarily approach a general average in 

 size. The more widely scattered the food units the greater the 

 powers of locomotion necessary to collect an adequate supply. 

 Very small types thus are gradually eliminated. At the same 

 time increasing distance between food units renders it increas- 

 ingly difficult to gather these in quantities sufficient to main- 

 tain a large sized animal. So with the small creatures the 

 larger also disappear. 



Well out of sight, but probably in the twilight zone where 

 food is most abundant, thanks to the concentration due to the 

 descent each day of animals from the sun-lit layers above, and 

 where conditions are practically the same in all the oceans 

 except in the extreme north and south, live giant squids and 

 cuttles of several kinds, the largest, occasionally found floating 

 in a dying or dead condition in the autumn on the fishing 

 banks and sometimes in other parts of the sea, reaching a total 

 length of at least 55 feet with the body 20 feet long and 12 

 feet in circumference and the eye opening 7 by 9 inches; in 

 one individual measured the tentacular arms were 37 feet in 

 length. In October, 1875, between twenty-five and thirty 

 of these giant squid were found by the vessels of the Glouces- 

 ter fishing fleet on the Grand Banks and cut up and used 

 for bait. The schooner Howard, Capt. J. W. ColHns, alone 

 secured five of these, which were mostly from 10 to 15 feet 

 in length, not including the arms. The schooner Tragahig- 

 zanda, Capt. Mallory, secured three from 8 to 12 feet long in 

 one afternoon. Probably as many were found by the ships 

 from other towns as by those from Gloucester. 



The famous sea-serpent can from most accounts be identi- 



