Deep-sea creature

“ But, great as is the number of luminous creatures in the shallow waters, the percentage among those dredged from the deeps is greater, though their brilliant glow, when lying upon the decks of the exploring ships, is no guide to the possible intensity of their light in the pressure under which they live. Many of the deep-sea species possess light-projecting organs in numbers and perfection unrivalled by the shallow-water forms. Some of the fish have double rows of tiny lamps running the whole length of their bodies, like the rows of port-holes in an ocean steamer’s sides. ”

“ So, thus armed, this nightmare monstrosity crouches in the darkling depths of ocean, like some unimaginable web, whereof every line is alive to hold and tear. Its digestion is like a furnace of dissolution, needing a continual inflow of flesh, and nothing living that inhabits the sea comes amiss to its never-satisfied cravings. ”

“ But without touching upon the lower forms of life peopling the sea, and so escaping the burden of thought which the slightest consideration of their myriads entail, it is possible to note, without weariness, how, all over the waste spaces of a remote and unhearing ocean, fish of noble proportions and varying degrees of edibility disport themselves, breeding none know where, and revealing their beauties to the passing seafarer as they gather companionably around his solitary keel. ”

“ The venturesome occupants of the boat, a seaman, a curate, and two schoolboys, had actually seen the monsters passing under their boat. The creatures, it seems, like most deep-sea organisms, were phosphorescent, and they had been floating, five fathoms deep or so, like creatures of moonshine through the blackness of the water, their tentacles retracted and as if asleep, rolling over and over, and moving slowly in a wedge-like formation towards the south-east. ”

“ We have gained that the value of which we can not calculate with railroads and telegraphs, and the changes which have come over our social life; but it is equally impossible to estimate what, in turn, we have lost.
Deep-Sea Fishes.—Remembering the darkness and the enormous pressure of the water in the depths of the ocean, no one will be surprised that the forms and the organs of deep-sea fishes differ greatly from those of species which live near the surface. Unless among microscopic creatures, no such curious and grotesque shapes can be found in the animal kingdom as among these fishes. ”

“ At night, however, and particularly in the hot season, it becomes phosphorescent. These horrible creatures have their passions; their submarine nuptials. Then it adorns itself, burns and illumines; and from the height of some rock, it may be seen in the deep obscurity of the waves below, expanding with a pale irradiation—a spectral sun.
The devil-fish not only swims, it walks. It is partly fish, partly reptile. It crawls upon the bed of the sea. At these times, it makes use of its eight feelers, and creeps along in the fashion of a species of swift-moving caterpillar. ”

“ As to the origin of the deep-sea fauna, there seems no doubt that it has arisen by many contributions from the various shore-haunts. Following the down-drifting food, many shore-animals have in the course of many generations reached the world of eternal night and winter, and become adapted to its strange conditions. For the animals of the deep-sea are as fit, beautiful, and vigorous as those elsewhere. There are no slums in Nature. ”

“ This, too, must be said of the flying-fish, one of the most wonderful of all the inhabitants of the deep seas, yet not so important to the seaman from a utilitarian point of view, since the occasional stragglers that do fly on board ship in their blind haste to escape from their countless foes beneath, usually fall to the lot of the ship’s cat. ”

“ On the utilitarian side too the dolphin is beloved by the sailor, for its flesh is whiter and more sapid than that of any other deep-sea fish except the flying fish, which are too small and too infrequently got hold of on board ship to be taken much account of for food. ”

“ They also visit the depths and afford an indefinite food-supply to the deep-sea dwellers.
But probably by far the larger part of the food consumed by abysmal creatures consists of the dead bodies of animals which sink down like manna from above. The surface layers of the ocean teem with animal and vegetable life. Every yachtsman must at times have noticed that the sea is thick as a purée with jelly-fish, or with those little transparent, torpedo-shaped creatures, the Sagitta. ”

“ For all general purposes, the limiting depth of living carbon-compounding plants may be set at 100 fathoms, as a generous figure—about the average depth of the border of the continental shelf—while the vast majority flourish only in the upper third of this depth.
Life does not cease here, for the products of this surface-life sink to greater depths and are fed upon by forms of sea animals that have become adapted to the dark and cold abyss of the ocean. Obviously, these deep-sea forms are a very distinct type of life, and constitute a fauna of the most pronounced kind, the abysmal fauna. ”

“ That there are animals in the northern and other seas with which we are unacquainted, is more than probable: discoveries of animals of new species are constantly being made, especially in the life of the deep sea. ”

“ Hence the deep seas have a peculiar fauna of their own. Surface species could not generally bear the enormous pressure, and do not descend to any great depth. The true deep-sea forms are, however, as yet little known. ”

“ A dead seal or fish thrown into the sea is soon converted into a skeleton by the myriads of small crustaceans which infest these northern waters, and, like the ants in the equatorial forests, perform the part of scavengers of the deep.
60 Thus we find an exuberance of life, in its smaller and smallest forms, peopling the Arctic waters, and affording nourishment to a variety of strange and bulky creatures—cetaceans, walruses, and seals—which annually attract thousands of adventurous seamen to the icy ocean. ”

“ They have lost their eyes and their brains are quite rudimentary compared with those of their land or shallow-water relatives. All have increased greatly the amount of gelatinous tissue between the internal organs, so that they have a low specific gravity. The deep-sea forms thus far collected are broad and flat. Some have taken on the appearance of small fish with outgrowths on the sides of the body which resemble fins, and with the rear end flattened like a fish’s tail. Some have developed tentacles around their mouths.
Most of the ribbon worms of the open sea are nearly transparent. ”

“ Many thousands in number, glistening in the sunblaze like burnished silver, they glide through the air with incredible speed, the whole shoal rising and falling in wave-like undulations as if in the performance of preconcerted evolutions. They have been flying upon a plane of perhaps twenty feet above the sea for some five hundred yards, and are just about to re-enter the water, when beneath them appear the iridescent beauties of a school of dolphin (not the dull-hued mammal, but the poet-beloved fish) . ”

“ It was also shown that, as the same species and genera are found in the most distant parts of the globe, the deep-sea fishes are not limited in their range, and consequently, as is admitted on other grounds, that the physical conditions of the ocean-depths must be much alike all the world over. ”

“ Many of these will be worn by their daily encounter with the tide, and some will be pierced with small round holes too neatly ground to have been made by accident. These holes give you a hint as to why this shell is empty for they are the work of a band of little pirates which live by boring into their neighbours and sucking their life-blood. Many of the dead shells are those of animals which live far out at sea or in the deep water and have been washed ashore when the tide was high. ”

“ Spread like a living net whereof every mesh was223 armed, sensitive and lethal, this fantastic complication of horrors took toll of all the sea-folk, needing not to pursue its prey, needing only to lie still, devour, and grow. Sometimes, moved by mysterious impulses, one of these chimæras would rise to the sea-surface and bask in the beams of the offended sun, poisoning the surrounding air with its charnel-house odours, and occasionally finding within the never-resting nervous clutching of its tentacles some specimens of the highest, latest product of creation, man himself. ”

“ It will be readily understood that much light is lost as the rays penetrate into deep water, so that the bottoms of deep seas must be more or less darkened. To allow for this loss, we find that the species living at moderate depths are provided with larger eyes to enable them to see their prey and their mates; but at still greater depths, where the sun’s light cannot penetrate, the fishes are either blind, or are possessed of luminous organs which enable them to see their way. ”

“ Examination of the results of the deep-sea trawling shows that, although in shallow water quite a number of new species were obtained, forming but a small proportion of the whole number of animals collected, the list of deep-sea species shows that almost every animal obtained in deep waters and in high southern latitudes is new to science. These facts should give an indication of the scientific value from a zoological point of view of deep-sea exploration in the Antarctic Regions. ”

“ When the slender keel glides quickly over the mirrored waters upon the wings of the wind, it cuts for itself a sparkling way, and disturbs in their sleep the monsters of the deep, which whirl and dart quicker than an eight-knot ship ”

“ Of far the greater number of sea creatures, it may truly be said that we never see any specimens except by accident, and never obtain the body of any except by very rare accident. Those creatures of the202 deep sea which we are best acquainted with, are either those which are at once very numerous and very useful as food or in some other way, or else those which are very rapacious and thus expose themselves, by their attacks on men, to counter-attack and capture or destruction. ”

“ At all events, we do not find in any truly subterranean species large and peculiarly modified eyes like those of many deep-sea animals, and this may be associated with the complete darkness of their habitat, not lighted by phosphorescent organisms as the deep sea is. ”

“ WITH Whales we have reached the highest class among Ocean creatures. Yet it is impossible to end here. Some few pages must be given to those among men who “go down to the Sea in ships,” who “do business in great waters.”
Not that in any sense can Man be reckoned as an inhabitant of the “Mighty Deep.” But thousands of men spend the greater part of their lives upon the Deep; tens of thousands more continually pass and repass over its surface. ”

“ Excluding all the varied species of mammals that form such an immense portion of the sea-folk, it may roughly be said that the majority of deep-sea fish belong to the mackerel family, or Scombridæ. They possess, in an exaggerated form, all the characteristics of that well-known edible fish that occasionally gluts our markets and gladdens the hearts of our fishermen. ”

“ Then, the sea, with the exception of a faint throbbing swell as if proceeding from the deep breathing of Neptune below the surface, seeming to rise and fall with rhythmical regularity, was calm and still, unbroken by even the tiniest ripple; now, as far as the eye could reach, it was all life and motion, the billows leaping up and tossing their heads, crowned with wreaths of curling spray and growing larger and larger each moment in volume as they dashed onward madly before the wind. ”

“ It must not be understood, however, that we assume the reader’s disinclination to know anything of the inhabitants of deep water, but rather that we consider the whole subject of deep-sea fishing quite beyond the scope of this work. It is a fact that quite a large number of species, the forms and habits of which are extremely interesting, live exclusively on deep bottoms. ”

“ The fins are small—so small as to appear almost rudimentary—yet the fish swims, or rather darts, along the bottom with amazing rapidity. They love to lie along the banks a few feet from the shore, where, concealed in the sand, they can dart out upon and seize their prey in their enormous 'gripsack'mouths. The approach of a boat, or a person walking along the sand, will cause them to at once speed like lightning into deep water, leaving behind them a wake of sand and mud, which is washed off their backs in their flight. ”

“ FIG. 27.—THE PAPER NAUTILUS (Argonauta argo) SAILING.
It is an old belief that in calm weather it rises from the bottom of the sea, and, elevating its two broadly-expanded arms, spreads to the gentle air, as a sail, the membrane, light as a spider's web, by which they are united; and that, [Pg 77] seated in its boat-like shell, it thus floats over the smooth surface of the ocean, steering and paddling with its other arms. Should storm arise or danger threaten, its masts and sail are lowered, its oars laid in, and the frail craft, filling with water, sinks gently beneath the waves. ”

“ Many deep-sea animals present archaic characters; still, the deep sea can not be said to contain more remnants of fauna which flourished in remote geological periods than the shallow and fresh waters of the continents. ”