A DESCENT INTO PERPETUAL NIGHT lOJ 



psychological mile-post, but it is a very real one. We had 

 no realization of the outside pressure but the blackness 

 itself seemed to close in on us. 



At 2000 feet I made careful count and found that there 

 were never less than ten or more lights — pale yellow and 

 pale bluish — in sight at any one time. Fifty feet below I saw 

 another pyrotechnic network, this time, at a conservative 

 estimate, covering an extent of two by three feet. I could 

 trace mesh after mesh in the darkness, but could not even 

 hazard a guess at the cause. It must be some invertebrate 

 form of life, but so delicate and evanescent that its abyssal 

 form is quite lost if ever we take it in our nets. Another 

 hundred feet and Mr. Barton saw two lights blinking on 

 and off, obviously under control of the fish. 



At this level and again on the way up, I saw at the very 

 end of our beam some large form swimming. On earlier 

 dives I had observed this and had hesitated even to men- 

 tion it, for it savored too much of imagination backed 

 by imperfect observation. But here it was again. The sur- 

 face did not seem black, and what outline came mo- 

 mentarily to view was wholly problematic. But that it 

 was some very large creature or creatures of which we 

 had glimpses five separate times on dives separated by years, 

 we are certain. Whether fish or squid or other organism 

 we cannot say. 



At 2300 some exclamation of mine was interrupted by 

 a request from above to listen to the tug's whistles saluting 

 our new record, and my response was, "Thanks ever so 



