92 



Marvels of the Universe 



Phola 1,1,-] 



A SIDE VIEW OF THE ANGLER. 



himself along 



The side-fins are developed into paddles, by whose aid ihe Angler hoist 



almost to these paddles. 



[/;. .■itep, F.L.S. 

 The huge mouth extends bacli 



or mud, open his capacious mouth at the edge of the jungle, and dangle his bait just above his lower 

 jaw. His motto is the dubious saying, " Everything comes to him who waits." To a creature like 

 the Angler, content with a life of stagnation so long as his bodily wants are satisfied, such a motto 

 is sufficient. A fish of inferior size prowling around the jungle sees the bait dangling in the current 

 and goes to investigate. A touch is sufficient. The nerves that clothe the rod-like spine flash the 

 news to the creature's brain that a dinner is " within the range of practical politics," the lower 

 jaw closes with a snap, and the dinner is secure within the bag-like mouth. 



The breast-fins of the Angler are not like fish-fins at all, but are more akin to the flappers of the 

 seal. They are thick and powerful, their bony structure reminding one of the human wrist, and the 

 Angler uses them to hoist its heavy body slowly along. The skin of the entire body is soft and 

 scaleless, so that a large specimen is a difficult burden to handle. The lower jaw and a line continu- 

 ing therefrom along each side are fringed with a series of fleshy lobes which bear a close resemblance 

 to the olive wrack among which it lies, and which is shown beneath it in the smaller photographs. 

 This line of lappets marks the division between the brownish grey upper side and the white under- 

 side. The Angler grows to a length of five or six feet. 



The Angler's " rod " is really the first bone of the first back-fin. Its base is attached to the 

 snout, and the extremity is curved so as to enable the bait to hang loosely. It most resembles a 

 decaying stalk of seaweed arising from a weedj' boulder, and there is little doubt that it is so regarded 

 by fishes who brush unceremoniously against it, and so set the terrible lower jaw in instant motion. 

 This lower jaw is longer than the upper. Both are liberally set with several rows of long, tapering 

 teeth, their points sloping towards the fish's throat. Cod a couple of feet long have been taken from 

 the Angler's stomach, and in one case over seventy herrings, so fresh that the fisherman sold them 

 without question that they had been taken in the usual way. This latter case looks as though a 

 school of herrings had passed his way and the Angler had been able to take several gulps at them. 



A story is on record of an Angler that was found dead on the shore with a fox hanging out of his 



