FINNY LIGHT-BE AEERS. 97 



In Plate XVIII., Fig. 4, is shown a large light-giver, the 

 Plagiodus, a fish six feet in length. According to Dr. Giin- 

 ther, it emits light from various parts of its surface ; the tips 

 of the fins gleaming with a soft phosphorescence similar to 

 that of the large-eyed Beryx (Fig. 1) of same plate. The 

 latter attains a length of about twenty inches. 



Quite as ferocious in appearance as the Stomias is Chau- 

 liodus (Plate XXL, Fig. 4), with long, lance-like teeth, gleam- 

 ing fins, and a row of small phosphorescent plates that 

 perhaps sparkle like so many gems as their bearer sails along 

 in the greater depths. 



Exaggerations are often termed "fish-stories," for the 

 reason perhaps that improbable tales are related concerning 

 the denizens of the sea by fun-loving mariners ; but the most 

 remarkable stories that the vivid imagination of those who 

 go down to the sea in ships has ever devised are not as 

 remarkable as the simple truths regarding the every-day his- 

 tory of fish-life. What can be more astonishing than the fact 

 that these delicate forms are enabled to live in water where 

 the pressure is so great that hard wood is crushed and glass 

 reduced to powder ? If a decade or so ago a statement had 

 appeared in the daily press, to the* effect that a fish had been 

 discovered which could swallow another five times its own 

 bulk, it would in all probability have been classed as a " fish- 

 story," too big an one, indeed, to have even the merit of 

 comical exaggeration : yet such a fish does exist in the black 

 swallower, or Chiasmodus (Plate XVIII., Fig. 5) ; the fish, 

 besides being luminous, possessing this extraordinary faculty. 

 The jaws, by a special arrangement, are capable of great 

 extension ; so that the fish actually draws itself over its prey, 

 that may be many times its own bulk. The skin of the 



