90 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



and tentacles of a huge jelly-fish swaying near 

 the surface. Some jelly-fish have a disc a yard 

 in diameter, and tentacles over 30 feet in 

 length. 



Another sea-serpent which our friend Mr. 

 James Reid of Stonehaven went far to identify 

 is almost certainly the Oar-fish or Ribbon-fish 

 (Regalecus), a silvery fish flattened like an 

 oar, sometimes over 20 feet in length. It is 

 normally a deep-water fish, but it sometimes 

 swims with an undulatory motion at the surface, 

 and may, when attacked by some enemy, raise 

 part of its body several feet out of the water. 



FITNESSES OF THE OPEN-SEA DRIFTERS 



It is plain that one of the chief requirements 

 of an animal that lives in the open sea is, that 

 it should be able to keep afloat. This is se- 

 cured in many different ways. Thus there are 

 various arrangements for increasing the sur- 

 face of the body without greatly increasing the 

 weight. Many minute surface creatures are 

 practically unsinkable even though their skele- 

 ton is often made of flint. Their armature is 

 produced into delicate processes or, in some 

 cases, stalked discs like half dumb-bells, which 



