50 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



merous bunches of curly medusa heads of reddish 

 tentacles above, and dozens of brush-like tufts of 

 white spines. 



Again and again I was impressed with one out- 

 standing feature of the Current Rip, this un- 

 charted zoologists' paradise — the narrowness of its 

 limits and the sharpness with which these limits 

 were defined. It was a world, not of two, but to 

 all intents and purposes, of a single plane — length. 

 From first to last we followed its course along a 

 hundred miles, and yet ten yards on either side of 

 the central line of foam, the water was almost 

 barren of life. The thread-like artery of the cur- 

 rents' juncture seethed with organisms — literally 

 billions of living creatures, clinging to its erratic 

 angles as though magnetized. The floating, drift- 

 ing world of ocean life was, of course, irresistibly 

 swept there, and this life alone would have made 

 it worth a year's study. There is no stronger at- 

 traction in life, however, than food, and here was 

 food, manna, ambrosia, in stupendous quantity, to 

 be had for the taking. Somehow the news must 

 have spread far and wide, over and through the 

 great lake-like expanse of this part of the Pacific. 

 As each group and individual sensed the happening, 

 another and still another one or one thousand, a 

 little farther away, saw the eager start and in turn 

 started. I can in no other way account for the 

 infinite number of fish and organisms other than the 

 helplessly drifted plankton which filled all this rip. 

 It seemed as if as great an area must have been 

 depleted of its larger, self-swimming, dominant 



