THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



49 



blind for want of light to see by, 

 others have acquired great staring eyes 

 to use the lea^t glimmer of light. It 

 follows that iu the remotest ocean 

 depths some kind of light exists for 

 the use of the goggle-eyed fishes, and 

 this is probably phosphorescent. When 

 animals are drawn in a trawl from 

 deep water to the surface, they glow 

 brilliantly. It may be that their honu' 

 on the sea floor is as brightly illumi- 

 nated as a city street on a holiday 

 night, tiiat there the prawns twinkle 

 like stars, great fish flame like torches 

 and medusas glow like are lights. 



Three conditions in which the depths 

 of the sea differ from the world of dry 



the bottom, his corpse is probably 

 crushed by the tremendous pressure to 

 the size and semblance of a folded um- 

 brella. A popular error supposes that 

 the force of gravity is inert at the bot- 

 tom of the sea, that ships, men, and 

 guns can sink only to a certain depth, 

 where they are suspended each at its 

 particular stratum of density. But 

 really everything that is dropped into 

 the sea from a feather to an anchor 

 sinks at last, some in a few minutes, 

 others in a few days, to the bottom of 

 the sea. Only by slow degrees, lasting 

 over many generations, can any kind 

 of animal migrate to or from the 

 abyss. An individual that passed up- 



As a dweller in the abyss this fish has acquired the following notable features; large staring 

 eyes for peering into perpetual gloom; long needle teeth useless for biting or fighting but 

 used to guide helpless prey down its throat; a small, weak tail that is deficent in propulsive 

 power, though strong enough for the gentle life of the great depths. 



DrawinLC — A. K. McCulloch. 



land are the cold, the darkness and the 

 pressure. Both cold and darkness can 

 be readily imagined from human ex- 

 l^erience, but pressure is a factor whose 

 features cannot be so easily realised. 

 It has been calculated that the pres- 

 sure in ocean depths, from the weight 

 of the water above, is more than two 

 and a half tons to the square inch, a 

 greater pressure than there is in the 

 boiler of a steam engine. When the 

 body of a sailor buried at sea reaches 

 its final resting place in the ooze at 



wards would burst, and one that passed 

 downward would l)e crushed. Still, 

 when any species of animal has at last 

 grown accustomed to the jDressure, it 

 is iDrobably less inconvenienced by it 

 than by the cold or by the darkness. A 

 fish drawn in a net from the abyss to 

 the surface is a sorry sight; by de- 

 comi^ression it has been, as it were, ex- 

 ploded, the eyes are blown out of the 

 head, the viscera burst from the mouth, 

 and the body is inflated like an air 

 cushion. Its flesh is loose and flabby, 



