WHIRLPOOLS 



vast whirlpool, not in supernatural manifestations but in 

 natural phenomena. There is the marbled angler, for 

 instance, a nightmarish animal which challenges the 

 sargassum fish for Rightfulness and is only (literally) 

 beaten by a head : the sargassum fish's uglier death's- 

 head. 



The marbled angler is thick in proportion to its length 

 — it is in fact fearsomely squat. Its main peculiarity is 

 that the extremities of its fins and tail are like beautiful 

 fronds of maidenhair. These waving fringes do not give 

 the fish a graceful appearance. They only emphasize its 

 ugliness and give the impression that the creature is a 

 denizen of another world than our own. 



Crabs, shrimps and prawns abound in the Sargasso, as 

 also do many varieties of snails and mussels. There are 

 numerous varieties of snails among the weeds, extra- 

 ordinarily beautiful in colour and (according to epicures 

 who have tasted them) far more delicious than land 

 snails. 



Some of the most curious facts regarding the ''garden 

 whirlpool" are those concerned with eels. 



For untold centuries — probably since the world's first 

 humans took to the seas in their primitive boats — men 

 have disputed the details of the life-history of these 

 wonderful creatures. They arrive as tiny wriggling shapes 

 in our estuaries, swim up our rivers, and when fully 

 matured return to the wide expanses of the ocean, where 

 — until quite recent years — they have vanished : passing 

 beyond human investigation. 



It was the Danish zoologist, Johannes Schmidt (1877- 

 ^933)5 ^ naturalist who spent most of his life studying 

 flatworms, sponges and other forms of marine life, who 

 discovered that the eels of European rivers make journeys 

 of incredible length through the waters to the Sargasso 

 Sea, there to spawn and die after accomplishing their 

 amazing mission. What mysterious instinct guides them 

 through the trackless wastes, so that they do not wander 



105 D* 



