28 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



and grope forms of life that are too strange to be 

 credited. 



With the hope of getting some of these gro- 

 tesque creatures of the deep, the big trawl was let 

 over the side, and the cable began to run off the 

 huge drum, passing through a succession of blocks 

 that made it look as though a gigantic game of cat's- 

 cradle was in progress on the forward deck, before 

 it ran over the tip of the outswung boom and 

 down into the water. At intervals of a hundred 

 fathoms the unwinding process was checked long 

 enough to attach a fine silk net to the cable, so 

 that the various levels of the sea would be combed. 

 We were once more under way, going at slowest 

 speed — about two knots — so that too great a strain 

 might not be put on nets and machinery, and 

 though the ship rolled a bit now and then, it was 

 no longer the catastrophic wallowing that made 

 us long to be limpets. It was necessary to let out 

 the cable slowly, as we had learned by experience. 

 On one occasion when impatience overcame dis- 

 cretion, yells of horror greeted the sudden rising 

 from the waves of a Gargantuan tangle, the re- 

 sult of too swift a descent that had allowed the 

 cable to overtake itself in loops and coils and in- 

 genious Gordian knots. The steam winch was 

 checked only just in time to prevent the whole 

 mass from striking the first block and working 

 tremendous damage. 



With the trawl at a depth of a mile, and five silk 

 nets trailing at hundred - fathom intervals, we 

 steamed slowly along for two hours. Deep-sea 



