NIGHT BENEATH THE SEA 353 



space of an eyewink it was followed by another and another 

 until the water was blazing with them. The owners of the 

 flashes, still unseen, moved as though animated by invisible 

 heliostats. These were no microscopic explosions but large 

 blazes of colored fire. 



The flashes came closer, shooting across the bearii with 

 lightning rapidity, flaring and disappearing, approaching ever 

 nearer. Finally one stopped only a few inches away. It was 

 glowing from one end to the other with unearthly light, the 

 most brilliant undiluted lavender I have ever seen. I recognized 

 this lovely creature as an anchovy, a fish about three or four 

 inches in length. It did not seem possible that this glowing 

 animal could be the source of the dismal mess known as an- 

 chovy paste. Yet a quick glance at the creature's long under- 

 shot jaw identified it beyond all question. No opal ever gleamed 

 with more intense fire; even as the anchovy moved the lavender 

 was replaced with a shimmering pink and finally with a bright 

 silver as it sped away. 



The coming of the anchovies is an event that I shall long 

 remember. There must have been some magnetic quality about 

 my searchlight that they could not resist. The silversides, long 

 minnows with broad bands of burnished silver running down 

 their sides, were affected similarly. In less time than it takes to 

 write this sentence, I was surrounded by a deluge of silver- 

 lavender forms that milled about the lens in a whirling cloud, 

 rushing headlong at the glass, bumping it and turning in sud- 

 den fright to dash away, only to be magnetized once more. 

 The accumulated reflection of their shining bodies lit up the 

 darkness for several yards around; ripples of rose-colored light 

 flickered through the murk. 



Within five minutes there must have been several hundred 

 of them, but these were completely eclipsed when from the 

 surface of the ocean there rained down a large school which 



