Marvels of the Universe 



381 



[fill A. TwMe. 



IHE INVERTED ANGLER. 



Judging by appearances one would suppose tKat this Angler carried his stomach on his 

 back. He is a degenerate Angler, for his fishing-rod is contemptible, while every other 

 organ except his mouth is only just in evidence. 



we do not know, and b}- 

 a ver\' little exercise of 

 the imagination we can 

 people the abyss with 

 stealthily gliding forms 

 that materialize the very 

 worst figments of a severe 

 nightmare. 



Amidst a world where 

 all is paradoxical and un- 

 explainable, we find what 

 we might expect, that 

 colour is absent ; for, 

 with hardly an exception, 

 these extraordinarA' shapes 

 are either black or dirty- 

 grey, in keeping with the 

 gloom of their native sur- 

 roundings. But there any 

 universal characteristic 

 ends. Species apparently 

 allied most closeh^ in all 



other respects will differ as wideh' as possible in some most important detail. As, for instance, 

 one will have eyes like pin-points ; another eyes like saucers. One will have a mouth like a 

 coal-sack, \rith a body behind it like a whip-lash ; another has a mouth like a pin-hole and a bod\? 

 Uke a porpoise. Or one light, slender, almost elegant in shape, has an immense propelling organ 

 or tail : another with a body like a porpoise, has practically no tail-fin at all : its body tapers- off 

 to a point. But we must 

 pause in this brief inti"o- 

 duction to consider a few 

 of the creatures here de- 

 picted, popularizing, as far 

 as possible, the terrible 

 appellations given them. 



The Snipe-beaked Rib-* 

 bon-fish shown on p. 383 

 has been found, as usual 

 with the deep-sea crea- 

 tures, in widely separated 

 districts, and has been 

 brought up from depths 

 varying from two hundred 

 to two thousand fathoms : 

 but the possibility of 

 specimens of little-known 

 fish having got into the 

 trawl on its way down 

 must always be borne in 

 mind. Especially so in 



THE LURKING ANGLER. 



Like most of the Anglers, this fish is ill-adapted for swimming, 

 that could be given of it is that of an animated stomach. It is only 

 and it has been found in water seventeen hundred fathoms deep. 



[/;.// 4. Tiridle. 



The best description 

 ibout two inches long. 



