352 THE ARCTURUS AD\^NTURE 



they were placed. On the summit of the head were 

 myriads of tiny, bead-like facets, each on the sum- 

 mit of a long thready nerve extending down to the 

 side of the head where were two more normal ap- 

 pearing eyes. It seems that Phronima is especially 

 blessed with eyesight, for it is believed that the first 

 mentioned structure functions in the pale, dimness 

 of the general environment, while the lateral eyes 

 are better fitted for focussing on brilliantly lighted 

 objects. If we can imagine one of the voracious 

 Astronesthes coming along in the full blaze of its 

 hundreds of portholes, Phronima at once brings its 

 side eyes into play, puts its tail hard aport, and 

 goes off in its barrel at high speed. 



Every half inch shift of tha plankton pan 

 brought a new world into view, or rather a new 

 cosmos, for along came a planet rolling slowly 

 across space — a wine-colored sphere of a jelly-fish 

 — as heavy as a shadow, as dense as water, as beau- 

 tiful as could be. It seemed very far from the ani- 

 mal kingdom, with its radial symmetry of a flower, 

 for which it could blame, or boast some long- 

 stemmed ancestor of ages past. Sagittae, those 

 swift arrows of sea-worms, showed the trace of their 

 deep home by their pink hue — an approach to the 

 scarlet and the black zones of water. They hung 

 motionless in the quiver of their own body, or shot 

 with half -sheathed jaws swiftly through the mass 

 of plankton. They are the falcons of this plank- 

 ton world, and in the stomach of one I found a lan- 

 tern-fish, a Vinciguerria, as perfect as if it still 

 lived. 



