2o8 A DESCENT INTO PERPETUAL NIGHT 



much, but take this: two very large leptocephaU have just 

 passed through the Hght, close together, vibrating swiftly 

 along; note — why should larval eels go in pairs?" And 

 with this the inhabitants of our dimly remembered upper 

 world gave up their kindly efforts to honor us. On down 

 we went through a rich, light-filled 2400, and to rest at 

 2500 feet, for a long half hour. 



A pair of large, coppery-sided scimitar-mouths {Gono- 

 stoma elongahun) swam past; Sternoptyx, the skeleton- 

 fish, appeared in a group of four; a fish as flat as a moon- 

 fish entered the beam, and banking steeply, fled in haste. 

 One flying snail, from among the countless billions of his 

 fellows, flapped back and forth across my glass. Three 

 times, at different levels, creatures had struck against the 

 glass and, utterly meaningless as it sounds, exploded there, 

 so abruptly that we instinctively jerked back our heads. 



We tried out the full power of the 15 00- watt light, 

 heating the bathysphere and window considerably, but not 

 too dangerously. At 11:17 o'clock I turned the light on 

 suddenly, and saw a strange quartet of fish to which I have 

 not been able to fit genus or family. Shape, size, color, and 

 one fin I saw clearly, but Abyssal Rainbow Gars is as 

 far as I dare go, and they may be anything but gars. About 

 four inches over all, they were slender and stiff with long, 

 sharply pointed jaws. They were balanced in the center 

 of the electric ray when it was first turned on, and the 

 unheard-of glare affected them not at all. There they 

 stood, for they were almost upright, and I could see only 



