THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



instance, some of which get their energy from con- 

 suming large quantities of planktonic creatures, can 

 weigh over 400 pounds, and have been known to drag 

 an eighteen-foot saihng boat for two or three miles. 



Numerous living species of Chelonians (turtles and 

 tortoises) are known. The limbs of a Chelonian may be 

 either of two types — limbs, with free toes, for walking, 

 in the land tortoises, or flattened paddles for propelling 

 themselves through the water in the turtles. Some aquatic 

 forms have additional respiratory organs. 



Globe-fishes are the hedgehogs of the ocean surfaces. 

 They are found on all the warmer coasts of the world, 

 particularly within the tropics, and their extraordinary 

 characteristics have earned them such picturesque 

 names as "puffers", ''swell-fish", ''bellows-fish", and 

 "rabbit-fishes" — the latter because of their rodent-like 

 teeth. Globe-fishes are oval, spinose, small-finned fishes, 

 which nibble barnacles and crunch other small crus- 

 taceans and molluscs found along the world's warmer 

 coasts. 



Looking ordinary enough when deflated, the globe- 

 fish changes its appearance in a remarkable manner 

 when danger threatens. It immediately sucks air or 

 water into a large bladder-like membrane covering its 

 abdomen until the fish becomes as round as a football, 

 while its sharp spines arise from their normal position 

 and stand up as stiffly as soldiers on parade with fixed 

 bayonets. It has changed from what may have seemed a 

 tempting morsel to one of its enemies to a most disagree- 

 able mouthful, so that one can imagine a fish many 

 times the size of the inflated globe-fish turning away and 

 seeking a snack elsewhere. Yet sometimes a shark or 

 other monster of the deep may swallow one. 



If this happens the globe-fish takes a terrible revenge 

 for the indignity. Having teeth as sharp as a rat's, and a 

 beak as formidable as a parrot's, it bites its way to freedom 

 through its enemy's stomach. There are stories of eels 



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