Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1934 Dec
Contents
A HALF MILE DOWN I am calling it the Three-starred Angler fish, Bathyceratiastri lynchnus. It was close in many respects to the well-known genera Ceratias and Crypto sparas, but the flat tened angle of the mouth and the short, even teeth were quite different. Six inches long, typically oval in out line, and black, it had a small eye. The fin rays were usual ex cept that it had three tall tentacles, orillicia, each tipped with a strong pale-yellow light organ. No pio neer peering at a Mar tian landscape could ever have a greater thrill than did I at such an opportunity. Once more I rear ranged my aching limbs. Everything of interest was still re layed through the phone, but I was slumped down, re laxed. A DEEP-SEA "POWER HOUSE" Suddenly I leaned forward. At a mo ment of suspension came a new and gor geous creature. Drawn by Charles E. Riddiford SPACE WAS AT A PREMIUM WITH ALL INSTRUMENTS ABOARD Because the Bathysphere is so small and the equipment so scattered into odd nooks, its interior cannot be photographed to show the oxygen tanks, valves, gauges, etc., as they were placed during a dive. The artist's drawing, however, cuts away a bit of the shell and discloses the relative location of each item in this deep-sea laboratory. I yelled for continuance of the stop, which was at 1,900 feet, and began to ab sorb what I saw: a fish almost round, with long, moderately high, continuous, vertical fins; a big eye; a medium mouth; and small pectoral fins. The skin was decidedly brownish. We swung around a few degrees, and from the vantage thus gained I saw its real beauty. Along the sides of the body were five unbelievably beautiful lines of light, one equatorial, with two curved ones above and two below. Each line was composed of a series of large pale-yellow lights, and every one of these was surrounded by a semicircle of very small but intensely pur ple photophores (see Color Plate XII). The fish turned slowly, showing a narrow profile. If it had been at the surface and without lights I should, without question, have called it a Butterfly-fish (Chaetodon) or a Surgeonfish (Acanthurus). But this glowing creature was assuredly neither, un less a distant relative adapted for life at 300 fathoms. My name for it is Bathysidus penta grammus, the Five-lined Constellation Fish. In my memory it will live throughout the rest of my life as one of the loveliest things I have ever seen. Central ObservationWindow Barometer Thermometer-*fumidify Recorder Left Observationlindow (seated) Oxygen TantkValve Telephone Coi Bbattery Box Entranceto Bat! sp here B(ower,Trays .7Pan, of ChemicaAparatus for absorbtionof carbon dioxide 691
Links
Archive
1935 Jan
1934 Nov
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page
