WINDOWS FOR SEA AN.GLERS 



Port Jackson shark. In a little sandy bay is a black corkscrew- 

 like object, the egg, Nature having provided this case to prevent 

 it from washing ashore. Almost from the start, in the kelp, but 

 never on the sand, we have seen a brilliantly coloured, orange-red 

 fish, the red angel-fish, so tame or inquisitive that it can be very 

 carefully studied. With it are many rock-bass with beautiful eyes, 

 and young blue-eyed perch, and on rare occasions the sand-bass. 



Directly before us, seen as the kelp rolls away, and then only 

 when pointed out, is the most remarkable of all these fishes, the 

 big kelp-fish. Now you see it, now you do not, though it is 

 directly under your eyes, but sO extraordinary is its resemblance 

 to the kelp that even the skilled observer loses this wonderful 

 mimic as it winds back and forth before his eyes. The reason 

 of this is that the kelp-fish assumes the exact colour of the weed. 

 It has a long fin and is mottled, just as are the leaves, with dashes 

 of white, resembling the corallines. This is sufficient in itself 

 to disguise the fish, but as though not satisfied, it hangs in the 

 kelp, head up, or down, in a perpendicular position, so its resem- 

 blance to a part of the leaf is exact. Very like a bird it is in the 

 tops of these kelpian forests, one hundred feet above the bottom. 

 Like a bird, it builds a nest by winding a cord of eggs about small 

 bunches of weed ; the male, in briULant nuptial colours, watching 

 over it and violently attacking other fishes. 



Crouching amid the rocks we see two kinds of sculpins, with 

 large heads and extraordinary fins, wonderful mimics of their 

 surroundings. The fish with the bands is the convict-fish, a very 

 mild-mannered little fish. Projecting from some crevice will be 

 seen a sharp-nosed fish with mouth open, displaying snake-hke 

 teeth. This is the local sea-serpent, moray or sea eel, which 

 attains a length of four feet ; a most disagreeable creature when 

 taken into a boat, coUing and striking like a snake and quite as 

 vicious. This is an ally of the fish to which the epicures of old 

 Eome fed slaves, to improve the flavour. Up out of the blue depths 

 may come a ponderous form six or seven feet in length, a perfect 

 black bass, yet moving slowly and with certain dignity through 



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