2l6 A DESCENT INTO PERPETUAL NIGHT 



prises came at every few feet and again the mass of life 

 was totally unexpected, the sum total of creatures seen 

 unbelievable. At looo feet I distinctly saw a shrimp out- 

 lined and distinguished several of its pale greenish lights. 

 Although I delayed very little at the hundred foot stops, 

 when the rope guys were attached, yet I dictated page 

 after page of observations. I used the light as little as pos- 

 sible and carefully shielded my eyes, so that very soon they 

 became dark adapted. I was watching for two or three 

 things which I wanted to solve. Large Melanostomiatid 

 dragon-fish with their glowing port-hole lights showed 

 themselves now and then, by which I mean on three sep- 

 arate occasions; and more than elsewhere, in our electric 

 light, we had frequent glimpses of small opalescent cope- 

 pods, appropriately called Sappbirina, which renewed for 

 us all the spectrum of the sunlight. 



I have spoken of the three outstanding moments in the 

 mind of a bathysphere diver, the first flash of animal light, 

 the level of eternal darkness, and the discovery and descrip- 

 tion of a new species of fish. There Is a fourth, lacking 

 definite level or anticipation, a roving moment which 

 might very possibly occur near the surface or at the 

 greatest depth, or even as one lies awake, days after the 

 dive, thinking over and reliving it. It is, to my mind, the 

 most important of all, far more so than the discovery of 

 new species. It is the explanation of some mysterious oc- 

 currence, of the display of some inexplicable habit which 



