DWELLERS IN THE DEEP 



209 



most any or all the colors of the rainbow. In 

 fact the bottom of the sea is not so very dif- 

 ferent from the shallows as we have imagined. 

 It has its peculiar conditions of light, tempera- 

 ture, and pressure, and in it have been placed 

 a fauna, and possibly a flora, of especial fitness 

 to meet those conditions; but otherwise it is 

 substantially the same water and life as else- 

 where. 



The true ocean rovers are, however, the sur- 

 face fishes that travel in schools; and these are 

 perhaps more rapacious, more destructive, than 

 their brethren in the pit. No doubt all the 

 life in the sea is plagued with a morbid hunger. 

 The appetite in fishes seems never wanting; 

 and complete digestion with some of them is 

 only a matter of half an hour. Hence the 

 slaughter that goes on unendingly. It is su- 

 perinduced by hunger; and yet it is said that 

 the blucfish, even when gorged, still kills for 

 the pure love of killing. If so he is an excep- 

 tion. Nature sometimes produces a monstros- 

 ity, but with the majority of her creatures she 

 enables them to kill only that they may eat 

 and live. 



But whatever the motive, whether for food 

 or for frolic, these roving schools of fishes are 

 certainly proficient in the fine art of murder. 



Peculiar 

 conditions 

 in the sea 

 beds. 



Surface 

 fishes. 



The blue- 

 fish 



