1/2 AT THE END OF THE SPECTRUM 



phores turned inward. I saw it very clearly and knew it 

 as something wholly different from any deep-sea fish which 

 had yet been captured by man. It turned slowly head-on 

 toward me, and every ray of illumination vanished, to- 

 gether with its outline and itself — it simply was not, yet I 

 knew it had not swum away. 



A few minutes after this, when we examined the stuf- 

 fing-box overhead, we saw that the hose had been forced 

 an inch and a half into the sphere, and we were pitching 

 worse than ever, tossing the chemicals out of their racks 

 and making it necessary for us to cling tightly to the bot- 

 tom to keep from being banged about and bruised. Barton 

 and I held a brief consultation and decided that as we had 

 achieved our object, there was no need of continuing 

 under these unpleasant and uneasy conditions. So we de- 

 cided to make this depth — almost 400 fathoms — our floor 

 for this time and I gave the order to ascend. 



Several minutes later, at 2100 feet, I had the most ex- 

 citing experience of the whole dive. Two fish went very 

 slowly by, not more than six or eight feet away, each of 

 which was at least six feet in length. They were of the 

 general shape of large barracudas, but with shorter jaws 

 which were kept wide open all the time I watched them. 

 A single line of strong lights, pale bluish, was strung down 

 the body. The usual second line was quite absent. The 

 eyes were very large, even for the great length of the fish. 

 The undershot jaw was armed with numerous fangs which 

 were illumined either by mucus or indirect internal lights. 



