112 THE KIBBON FISH. 



Their structure, as we see it, delicate and incoherent to such 

 a degree that, as befell in Mr. Master's experience, they hardly 

 bear to be lifted from the ground in theu' entirety, is adapted to 

 waters not only of great density, but almost perfectly free from 

 agitation — conditions existing only at great depths. Here they 

 exist under the all round pressure of the superincumbent mass, 

 of ocean and by that pressure their tissues are rendered as firm, 

 their framework as rigid as is needed for all the purposes of life. 

 So long as they remain in the depth of water suited to them, 

 their health and safety are conserved, but if from any cause, 

 pursuit of prey, upward current or what not, they rise to a 

 somewhat higher stratum, pressure relaxes, the condensible 

 constituents of the body expand and it tends to disintegrate, 

 sufiering and debility ensue ; then efforts to escape death, some- 

 times mis-spent, may carry the creature to stiU higher levels, till 

 at length it floats on the surface unable to return — a wave 

 shattered wreck. In this helpless state it has been often 

 met with on the high seas, and may be occasionally, as in the 

 present instance, drifted ashore. 



Among the many phenomena which meet the eye of the 

 sailor, and have at various times been supposed to account for 

 the often reported appearance of the " Sea Serpent," the Ribbon 

 fish seems to hold its place more tenaciously than it does its own 

 structure mider adverse circumstances. Its long flexible body, 

 undulating with the waves, is still considered by many to be the 

 origin of the tales told of mysterious and appalling monsters. 

 We may confess that this is by no means the least plausible of 

 the explanations given by ingenious sceptics, but the admission 

 serves only to throw fnrther discredit on the less plausible. It 

 is, in truth, hard to conceive how a feeble ribbon of fish at the 

 mercy of the seas, and unable at its best to raise itself above 

 the surface, a fish of which the largest authentic specimen is 

 but 20 feet long, could have been converted by the most vi\id 

 fancy, much less by the common sense of men under no stress 

 of terror, into a snake-like creature of extraordinary size and 

 activity, rising from the ocean before their eyes, then sinking 

 into its depths. The sailors certainly seem to score one by the 

 improbabihty, since an unwise explanation is worse than none. 



As to the truth of the existence of " sea serpents " those 

 only can positively assert it who have had occasion to believe 



