n8 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



different. They have enormous heads with 

 strong jaws and teeth, and very large round 

 bodies, so that they look as if they were 

 " nothing but a mouth and a stomach." Some- 

 times the lower part of the skin of the body is 

 so loose that it can stretch to an enormous 

 extent, and more than once a fish has been 

 dredged up containing within it, still undigested, 

 another as big as, if not bigger, than itself ! 



Before we leave the question of food, we 

 should be clear in regard to two things first, 

 that the absence of living plants in the Deep 

 Sea is bound to make the animal's struggle for 

 existence very keen ; and, second, that what 

 count for most are not the bodies of big animals 

 that occasionally sink to the bottom, but the 

 minute creatures which are ceaselessly sinking. 

 It is rather a pretty picture the ceaseless rain 

 of dead animalcules sinking through the miles 

 of water like snowflakes on a quiet winter 

 evening. 



NO ROTTENNESS 



We are accustomed to think of Bacteria as 

 practically omnipresent, playing many a role in 

 the drama of life, now helping and again 



