220 A DESCENT INTO PERPETUAL NIGHT 



pectedly and showed so dimly that it was quite unidenti- 

 fiable except as a large, living creature. 



Alexander the Great still holds the record for size of a 

 deep-sea fish, when, in the Ethiopic version of Pseudo-Cal- 

 listhenes, we are told that he looked out of his glass cage, 

 and was shown by an angel of the Lord a monster which, 

 swimming rapidly, took three days and three nights to 

 pass before him! Nevertheless, my creature is a good be- 

 ginning. Seriously, it shows what still remains for the 

 pioneer explorer of the depths of the sea. 



Anyone who, from an airplane high above the earth, has 

 tried to spot another plane somewhere near, in full view, 

 will appreciate the even greater difficulty of focusing in 

 this three-dimensional, stygian blackness, upon some crea- 

 ture, suddenly appearing six inches from our faces, or 

 forty-five feet away. Again and again before the eye can 

 ref ocus, the flash and its owner have vanished. 



Mr. Barton saw no trace of the large creature I have 

 mentioned, although I called out to him and got him at the 

 window immediately. Soon after, when we were both look- 

 ing out, he saw the first living StylophtJoalmus ever seen by 

 man, which completely escaped me, although it must have 

 been within a foot of the windows. This is one of the most 

 remarkable of deep-sea fish, with the eyes on the ends of 

 long, periscope stalks, almost one-third as long as the entire 

 body. My missing the fish was all the more disappointing 

 because I had recently been thoroughly studying these 

 strange beings, and in fact had abolished their entire fam- 



