I20 THE OCEAN 



creatures may throw a great deal of new light 

 upon the hitherto unsolved mysteries of deep- 

 sea life. 



Such things have happened in the past and 

 may happen again at any time. Many years 

 ago the naturalists of the Fish Commission 

 discovered a new species of fish which was 

 called the "Tile Fish." This fish was excel- 

 lent eating and in a short time the deep-sea 

 fishermen caught quantities of them and sold 

 them in the markets. Suddenly the surface 

 of the ocean was found strewn with dead and 

 dying tile-fish which had been injured or 

 killed by some unknown agency, and the once 

 abundant fishes disappeared entirely from 

 their former haunts. 



No doubt some tremendous submarine 

 earthquake or other cataclysm produced this 

 sudden strange annihilation of the tile-fish 

 and it may have been something of the same 

 sort which destroyed the giant squids and thus 

 gave them to our scientists.* Should a similar 

 disaster occur at the right time and in the 



♦The tile fishes have again appeared in their old haunts (1915) 

 and are now being brought to the New York markets for sale. 



