A Possible Sea^Serpent 153 



is a bona fide herring and sometimes scales in the 

 vicinity of two hundred pounds. 



rt will, I think, be readily understood that a great 

 serpentine fish like this, totally unlike any other 

 fish with which the ordinary fisherman or saiftr is 

 acquainted, appearing with sinuous, stealthy gliding 

 along the sea-surface, say in the early twilight of 

 morning, might very easily give rise, with a little 

 quite excusable exaggeration, to a story of a sea-serpent. 

 It will be remembered too, that, in many sea-serpent 

 yarns, the monster is represented as having a mane 

 and oar-like fins. Here in Regalecus the conditions 

 are favourable to such a description — the extraordinary 

 dorsal development and the oar-shaped ventrals 

 undoubtedly lending themselves to such a conclusion. 



As with the rest of the deep-sea chimaeras, nothing 

 is or can be known of the habits of the Regalecus. 

 We can only say that it has an enormous range of 

 habitat, lives in deep water upon small organisms, 

 and is sometimes constrained to come to the surface, 

 when, if near shore, its feeble powers of locomotion (I 

 have omitted to state that the tail fin is entirely 

 absent) are not sufficient to enable it to keep off the 

 land. In colour the Regalecus is a silvery grey, with 

 a few darker spots near the tail. Deep-sea fishes do 

 not run to elaborate colourings. 



The next monster down for notice is a very good 

 specimen of the deep-sea chimaera, Chiasmodon niger. 

 It is a veritable nightmare in appearance, being entirely 

 black in colour, with a mouth that cleaves the head 

 asunder laterally for its whole length, so that vulgarly 

 speaking, when its mouth is wide open it has no profile. 

 This immense mouth is furnished with equally effective 

 teeth, which are not only found in the jaws but on the 

 palate also. Its front teeth are hooked and movable. 



