THE GLASS-BOTTOM BOAT 



7G9 



THE FEMALE SHEEPSHEAD 



young are attractive little fishes splashed 

 with blue. 



At times, after great storms, the voy- 

 ager, peering down through the glass win- 

 dow, sees strange and weird animals new 

 to science or so rare as not to be seen 

 alive by one in fifty thousand. Such is 

 the deal fish, seen lying on a weed, about 

 three feet long, a band of purest silver; 

 when it moves or swims it appears to un- 

 dulate like a ribbon. Specimens of an 

 allied form twenty feet long or more 

 have been found near here. The fish 

 lives in the deep sea, doubtless, and only 

 at rare intervals comes to the surface to 

 be seen or caught in the nets of the fisher- 

 men. 



THE PAPER NAUTILUS AND WONDERFUL 

 SEA ANEMONES 



If we are very fortunate we shall see 

 the paper nautilus, the most beautiful of 

 all the mollusks, which forms a dainty 

 capsule or shell that has for ages been a 

 model of all the most beautiful of animal 

 creations. If we are again fortunate we 

 may also see the animal leave the shell 



and move about, flushing a pale red, now 

 a vivid blue. This is the animal that is 

 supposed to. raise its sails and float on the 

 seas, "a thing of beauty, a joy forever." 

 It is sad to break up these delightful 

 fables, but the sail merely clings to the 

 shell, and the shell is merely the egg-case 

 or float for the strange creature. 



Drifting along, the rocks are now seen 

 to be covered with seeming flowers. 

 They are sea anemones, here of the 

 largest size, virtual giants, and when open 

 with all their tentacles expanded, the 

 flowers of the sea certainly, in shape and 

 color. In these big anemones, which are 

 cousins of the corals, a little fish lives, 

 darting into the mouth and living in the 

 stomach or intestine of the animal. A 

 long, slender fish also lives in one of the 

 sea-cucumbers which we have always in 

 sight, the trepang of the Chinese, and in 

 Malay an article of export. Here, also, 

 are small star-fishes, some like snakes, 

 uncovered by the waves as they come 

 slowly in. Near them, its head projecting 

 from the crevice, is the moray, a big eel- 

 like fish four feet long, with fangs that 



