24 Fish Stories 



pent in Pyramid Lake in Nevada. A similar record exists 

 of a sea serpent in Crater Lake, in Oregon. In similar cases, 

 the apparent moving body is a line of water birds, and not a 

 reptile; in others, doubtless floating logs, or other objects 

 imperfectly seen, furnish the basis for the story. Men 

 often see unusual or unexplained phenomena. In the aver- 

 age case not one in a hundred can report what he saw, or 

 anything like it. The imagination does the rest, and the 

 less a man knows, the more readily is he affected by sugges- 

 tion. A horse sees nameless terrors in a flying newspaper, 

 and a fool horse sees more than a wise one. 



It is not fair, however, to let the sea serpent pass without 

 a further reference to the animal which is the real basis 

 of the only sea-serpent stories which are worthy of our 

 notice. 



The great oar-fish is a ribbon-shaped animal, about 22 

 feet long, and weighing 500 pounds. It is half transparent, 

 like tough jelly in texture. Its color is light grass-blue, with 

 darker cross bars, and it has a long jaw and a high fore- 

 head, suggesting the head of a horse. The dorsal spines in 

 front are very long and stand apart from each other. Each 

 one is scarlet in color, with a scarlet knob or tassel at the 

 tip, and when the fish is alive, these stand up like the red 

 mane of a horse. 



The creature is harmless, weak in muscle, as well as feeble 

 in mind. It lives in the deep seas, all over the world. After 

 great storms it sometimes comes ashore. Perhaps this is 

 because for some reason it has risen above its depth, and so 

 lost control of itself. When a deep-water fish rises to the 

 surface the change of pressure greatly affects it. Reduction 

 of pressure bursts its blood-vessels, its swimming-bladder 

 swells, if it has one, and turns its stomach inside out. If a 

 deep-water fish gets above its depth it is lost, just as surely 

 as a surface fish is gone when it gets sunk to the depth of 

 half a mile. 



Sometimes, again, these deep-sea fishes rush to the shore. 



