take of its food : we find not even a parasite. And 

 that is all that the angler seems competent to give. 

 The net result of the morning's labor is a heap of 

 unpromising and unknown but ordinary-looking 

 fishes — a kind of herring — numbering nearly 

 forty; and one fifteen-inch flat-fish, a bottom dwel- 

 ler, and therefore a likely find, but as yet holding 

 only a hint of possibilities. 



Before proceeding further with these new-found 

 fishes, let us take another look at the angler. It 

 will be our last. Unquestionably, this is the most 

 hideous vertebrate in the sea. Yet, notwithstand- 

 ing what meets the eye, it is peculiarly worthy of 

 our admiration and regard, for its very ugliness 

 bespeaks one of Nature's most beautiful examples 

 of perfect adaptation to environment. That envir- 

 onment obviously is the mud and silt of the ocean 

 floor. Its color alone — a deep slaty-black — be- 

 trays its liking for the depths; but it is another 

 and quite singular feature that reveals its actual 

 mode of life ; a life for the most part passed grovel- 

 ing — indeed, crawling may be the better word — 

 on the bottom. The pectoral, or paired, fins are 

 fleshy affairs, well muscled and so jointed as to 



[26] 



