20 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



The discovery of our first specimen of Ptero- 

 pliryne drew everyone's attention; the youngest 

 member of the staff took one look at the little 

 creature and cried in honest ecstasy, "My Word!" 

 and so it was christened on the spot, and so, dur- 

 ing its brief span in our midst, it was affection- 

 ately called. I do not blame anyone for objecting 

 to the adjective "fascinating" as applied to a fish, 

 but I ask such a sceptic to wait until he has seen 

 Pterophryne, the Sargasso Fish par excellence. 

 From snout to tail-fin it was the piscine essence of 

 the fronds, its fin rays produced into finger-like ap- 

 pendages, with which it crept about in the weed, 

 swinging from frond to frond, dangling upside- 

 down, and assuming postures that were irresistibly 

 comic. Its foolish face was fixed in an expression 

 of intense earnestness, and the stout little body 

 performed amazing antics with the agility of a 

 monkey. I hold no brief for fish as pets, but 

 Pterophryne is the exception. Everyone who 

 could draw clamored to paint this specimen, others 

 inspected it with a view to determining the species, 

 and some of us wished merely to watch it and 

 chuckle. Soon the ghastly blue of Cooper-Hewitt 

 lights issuing from the bridge-casing told that mov- 

 ing picture and still cameras were busily recording 

 its appearance and activity. In my journal I find 

 a sad note for the evening of that date; " 'My 

 Word' died of publicity." He had his crowded 

 hour. 



Elsewhere I shall describe more in detail the 

 various forms of apparatus used on the Arcturus, 



