Living Silver 



attracted small predatory fish but, just as one of them was going to 

 devour it, the bowl of porridge split in two, revealing one of the 

 largest mouths and some of the nastiest teeth in the sea ; for the 

 angler's jaws, like its eyes, faced upwards and its tiny tempting 

 lure was dangling just above the opening of these jaws . Since most 

 of its body was a shell of bone covered with a slimy skin and occu- 

 pied mainly by the immense mouth, there was little of it left for 

 human consumption : but that little was very good food. The tail 

 of the angler, tiny in comparison to the main round mass of its 

 body, could still weigh several pounds since anglers grew to a great 

 size ; and it was the tail that was sold on the market though Jan 

 felt that it never fetched as much money as it ought to. 



These examples led him to suppose that many people were easi- 

 ly influenced by the sight of the animal they were going to eat. 

 If it was a pretty little beast they were sure to enjoy it : if it was 

 somewhat unprepossessing or even very ugly then they revolted 

 and refused to nibble a bite. It was unfortunate, for some of the 

 best fish meat was found on these ugly creatures and the pretty 

 ones would soon be faced with extinction if men were going to go 

 on hunting them so intensively and so exclusively. 



96 



