io8 THE OCEAN 



we all know how brilliant are the lambent, 

 phosphorescent waves which we sometimes 

 see at the surface on dark, warm, summer 

 nights. Knowing what wonderfully gro- 

 tesque and "impossible" creatures actually in- 

 habit the deep-sea and realising how little 

 chance we have of capturing the larger and 

 more active forms of life at great depths, it 

 is impossible to say what may and what may 

 not exist in that vast, unknown world. 



There, far out of sight and safe from mol- 

 estation or capture, there may be gigantic and 

 terrible creatures which have survived since 

 far-distant prehistoric times. For all we 

 know, great marine reptiles may still dwell in 

 the caverns and crevices of submarine moun- 

 tains thousands of fathoms beneath the sur- 

 face of the sea. Of course such creatures, if 

 they do exist, must be very different from any 

 living or fossil creatures with which we are 

 familiar. Through the countless ages since 

 animal life first appeared upon the earth there 

 has been plenty of time for nature to adapt 

 almost any form of life to an existence at the 

 bottom of the sea, and at almost every haul 



