June 30, 1898] 



NATURE 



20. 



one of the largest ever known, Geryon affinis, and there 

 were sixty-four specimens of it. Curiously enough, several 

 of them, which had not yet found the entrance of the trap 

 when it was hauled up, made the whole voyage of many 

 hundreds of fathoms, clinging voluntarily to the outside 

 of the trap. 



Another time, again (and this was of a special interest 

 because the event took place in the great depths of the 

 Mediterranean, where previous investigations with trawls 

 had led to the supposition that life was almost absent), a 

 trap returned with over eighty sharks called Centrophoriis 

 squainostis. 



For two years I have been trying to use in great depths 

 a net which is very good when used on inshore fishing 

 grounds. This is the trammel ; but its use has proved 

 to be exceedingly difficult because of its frailty and its 

 size. Still, I have already obtained with it results which 

 prove how useful it can be. I worked it as low as 1 500 

 fathoms. 



The most difficult regions to explore in the sea are the 

 intermediate depths between the surface and the bottom, 

 because the animals living there are very active and very 

 suspicious, and have ample space where they can escape 

 easily, and where they find abundant prey for their food. 

 Besides, the apparatus used must be built in such a 

 manner that they show at what level animals have been 

 caught, or else the scientific conclusion can not be made 

 complete ; therefore such an apparatus must be so as to 

 be lowered shut to the determined region, there open and 

 work, and lastly shut again before leaving the region. 



Many instruments have been devised for this purpose, 

 but I know only one of them offering complete safety ; 

 this is a net invented by Prof. Giesbrecht, which has been 

 slightly altered by Dr. Richard and myself. But it 

 would be difficult to make it of a large size ; therefore 

 we get only specimens of very small species. 



Lately 1 have obtained a certain number of large 

 animals living in those intermediate depths and belonging 

 to the very interesting group of cephalopods, by examin- 

 ing the stomach of several cetaceans who feed upon them. 

 Since this interesting fact, I added to the scientific gear 

 of my vessel a complete whaling arrangement. This 

 new method has given me the most remarkable animals 

 of my whole collection ; one especially, the Lepidoteuthis 

 Griinaldii, can be classified in no actually known species, 

 genus, or even family of his order. It was vomited in 

 1895. during the dying struggles of a sperm whale, but 

 had unfortunately lost its head by the last adventures of 

 its life. The fragment is about one yard in length, and 

 the complete animal must have measured over seven 

 feet ; adding the arms, we get a monster of colossal 

 strength. Its most remarkable feature is a cuirass of 

 large prominent scales which cover its visceral bag ; 

 these are quite unknown with animals of that order. 



The vomitings of the same sperm whale, who covered 

 two acres of the sea with his blood, contained another 

 immense cephalopod, a Cucioteuthis with arms as strong 

 as a man's, and carrying suckers armed with claws as 

 powerful as those of a tiger ; this animal is furnished 

 with luminous organs. 



In 1897 another large cetacean, that I was attacking j 

 with my whale boats, vomited a large fragment of a 

 cephalopod which was peculiar in being of viscid i 

 substance not unlike glycerine ; no net could retain it, | 

 and we only secured it by "dipping" it up with a large j 

 tub as well as the mass of water in which it was floating. ; 



But it will be convenient to remind the reader that ceta- ! 

 ceans divide themselves into two principal groups. One, to \ 

 which belongs the right whale or other marine mammals ' 

 chased by whalers, and who feed upon very small 

 animals that they absorb simply by moving about with 

 their mouths open. They have no teeth, but a sort of 

 sieve made of what is called whale bone. j 



Another group, to which belongs the sperm whale, is 

 NO. 1496, VOL. 58] 



armed with powerful teeth, a single one weighing some- 

 times as much as six pounds. They live upon big preys, 

 mostly cephalopods, as aforesaid. These cetaceans are 

 ferocious, while the others have a much milder temper, 

 and some of them, as the Orca Gladiator^ can be very 

 dangerous to attack. Two years ago I chased a school 

 of three of these, just off the Monaco rock, and very soon 

 one was struck by my whaler's harpoon. While it was 

 ending with violent struggles, the two others came 

 alongside the whale boat and seemed willing to fight for 

 their companion. They swam round and round, some- 

 times so close that the men touched their enormous 

 backs with their hands. I had to release at once that 

 boat, and for an hour we were (seventeen men and three 

 boats) engaged in a most grand wrestling. The result 

 was that a second orque was killed by a spear stroke. 



On the previous day we had caught a grampus, also a 

 cetacean ; so we returned to the harbour of Monaco 

 with three of these monsters captured within fifteen miles 

 of that place. 



The orques are black and white, much like a magpie, 

 and these were 16 and 18 feet long. They seem to feed 



Tail. Lower jaw. Head. 



Fig. 6. — Sperm whale being broken up. 



exclusively on porpoises. My two, when opened, con- 

 tained each of them a dozen pieces of porpoise in its 

 stomach like heaps of paving-stones : they had just 

 taken a meal when they were struck. 



Among many remarkable facts that I have observed 

 during my studies of the ocean, one has especially called 

 my attention because of its practical consequences ; 

 that is, the intensity of life appearing on the surface at 

 certain hours. 



Almost m every region of the North Atlantic where I 

 have carried on my investigations, I have ascertained 

 the existence of large tunny fishes which morning and 

 evening chase smaller fishes whose shoals cover some- 

 times the sea on such a large area that we sail or steam 

 hours and hours across them. 



Then, if we sight some wreckage — as a log or a barrel — 

 we always find under it or near it fishes of a good size 

 and of different species that never seem to abandon this 

 guide that they have chosen, and that takes them across 

 the Atlantic. They are very easily caught with a fish 

 spear, and the tunny fish are hooked with a tow-line 

 baited with a rough imitation of a squid. 



