WHIRLPOOLS 



which inhabits the Charybdis and is about an inch long, 

 transparent, and which seems (until it opens its mouth) 

 quite innocent and delicate. But when the mouth opens 

 it is enormous in relation to the animal's size : in fact it 

 has a ratio of mouth to body far exceeding that of any 

 other fish. Within its gaping jaws a complete battery of 

 tiny lamps or light-organs is disclosed. The creature can 

 reveal or conceal these lights at will, by simply opening 

 or closing its gigantic mouth. It swims towards its victim 

 in the gloom of the underseas and, facing it, suddenly 

 opens its mouth. Its victim is immediately attracted by 

 the bright lights, and in a split second is drawn past them 

 into the other fish's stomach. 



There are small sharks in the Charybdis. One of these, 

 seven inches long when immature, can grow to a maxi- 

 mum length of several feet, although even when fully 

 grown it is still a pygmy compared with sharks of other 

 areas. It is a sea-bed feeder and lives in comparatively 

 shallow waters. Its scales are covered with tiny points 

 which can easily rasp the skin if the fish is handled 

 carelessly when caught. 



Another weird creature of the Charybdis is the so- 

 called elephant-headed mollusc. This is a thumb-sized 

 animal which swims upside-down. Like many other 

 animals of the Strait it is transparent. Its head looks very 

 similar to that of an elephant, for it has a long ''trunk" 

 through which it takes its food. Its eyes, again, are 

 strangely like elephant's eyes, and from each of them a 

 small silvery appendage hangs which has the appearance 

 of a tear-drop. 



The whirlpools of the ocean usually remain in rela- 

 tively fixed positions, but the Charybdis has moved since 

 ancient times, when it was the subject of so many legends. 

 It no longer swirls near the rock of Scylla, but rotates 

 just over a thousand yards ofif Cape Peloro Lighthouse, 

 towards the other side of the Strait. And it is now not a 

 single whirlpool but the largest of a series into which the 



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