Little Freaks of Nature 163 



commission vessels. They may grow in those un- 

 known depths to a very great size for all we know, 

 but we never see them, nor does it appear that we are 

 ever likely to. Unless indeed it were found possible 

 to use a large form of fish-trap, a wicker or wire con- 

 trivance, into which fish of quite large size can squeeze 

 their way after the bait it contains but cannot get 

 back again. The entrance is set round with long, 

 flexible, sharp-pointed wires directed inwards and 

 converging to a very small space. The fish, however 

 sluggish, can easily squeeze through, but if he attempt 

 to withdraw, the points of the wires effectually prevent 

 him. 



One small species of fish I feel must not be neglected, 

 for several reasons. I say * one species ' although 

 the funny creatures have amazingly differing titles. 

 But they all look very much alike, are all a kind of 

 angler fish, having their mouths apparently cut down- 

 ward into the head from the top at the front, and 

 possessing a long spine protruding from the back of 

 the neck, with a tassel or a bulb depending from the 

 end of it, which is either a lure for prey or a sensitive 

 organ to warn the owner when buried in the mud, 

 its favourite place, of the approach of a victim. The 

 type is quite familiar to readers of good Natural 

 Histories. 



The special characteristics of this fish, however, 

 are well worth noting. First, the enormous depths 

 at which it lives, a specimen having been brought up 

 in the ' Challenger ' trawl from a depth of nearly 

 fifteen thousand feet. And yi this case, as Mancalias 

 Uranoscopus is essentially a bottom fish, there could 

 have been no possibility of it having entered the trawl 

 on its way down. It was three and a quarter inches 

 long. A larger specimen of a similar fish, though 



