. Creatures of the sea [microform] : being the life stories of some sea birds, beasts, and fishes. Marine animals; Marine fishes; Faune marine; Poissons de mer. afaV*t > . â â 156 Deep'2>ea Chimaeras their bodiM. at what miswry to his invoUintary hosts can only be imagined. It is curious and instmctive to compar*- him with Eurypharynx, well surnamed Pelicanoidfs, who, with a body like the thong of a stot k-whip, has a head about thrice its âº^ody's bulk, and jaws opening exactly like the mandiblis of a pcli<an. This amazing mouth splits the big head right in two lengthways, and the ey
. Creatures of the sea [microform] : being the life stories of some sea birds, beasts, and fishes. Marine animals; Marine fishes; Faune marine; Poissons de mer. afaV*t > . â â 156 Deep'2>ea Chimaeras their bodiM. at what miswry to his invoUintary hosts can only be imagined. It is curious and instmctive to compar*- him with Eurypharynx, well surnamed Pelicanoidfs, who, with a body like the thong of a stot k-whip, has a head about thrice its âº^ody's bulk, and jaws opening exactly like the mandiblis of a pcli<an. This amazing mouth splits the big head right in two lengthways, and the eyes are situated right at the end of the upper jaw, looking indeed like tiny nostrils, for they are mere points. Yet for all its fearsome this is evidently one of the most harmless of fish. It appears to live upon the tiniest marine organisms, which in some unexplainablc way it collects in its chasm of a mouth from the surrmmding sea. It has no teeth, a tail tapering off like the lash of a wliip, and for all sign of fins a series of spines protruding from its back and belly without any membranes between them. A dec/ 'vater fish akin to Chiasmodon, and found at a depth of nine hundred fathoms, has an even wider mouth, but no teeth in the lower jaw. Its only fins are a pair of rudimentary pectorals with the gill-slits behind them. About fourteen inches of its body is mainly stomach, through the walls of which transparent organ may be seen calmly reposing the body of a large fish which has been induced to take up its per- manent abode there. But the rest of the body, four feet or so, is like a whip-lash. In the specimen before me there appears to be one fish going ahead and another going astern, two heads on the same body, for the head of the swallowed fish seems about to emerge from the rear of the stomach and swim away. It is a very quaint beast indeed, and rejoices or suffers under the euphoni- ous epithet of Saccopharvnx fla^ellum. AUpisaurus ferox is the name g
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectmarineanimals, bookye
