# National Geographic Magazine/Volume 16/Number 7/The Purple Veil—A Romance of the Sea

THE PURPLE VEIL
A Romance of the Sea
OFF the New England coast a curious object is often found floating on the water, somewhat resembling a lady's veil of gigantic size and of a violet or purple color. The fishermen allude to it generally as the "purple veil," and many have been the speculations concerning its nature and origin. In 1871 the late Prof. Spencer F. Baird had the opportunity of examining one of these objects at sea, and he found it to present the appearance "of a continuous sheet of a purplish-brown color, 20 or 30 feet in length and 4 or 5 feet in width, composed of a mucous substance, which was perfectly transparent, to which, as a whole, a purple color was imparted by the presence of specks distributed uniformly throughout the mass to the number of about thirty or more to the square inch."
On examining the substance with a magnifying glass it was found that each little speck consisted of an embryonic fish, moving vigorously within the narrow limits of a little cell in the jellylike mass, so that it was obvious that the purple veil, as a whole, was the egg-mass of a fish.
It is somewhat startling to be told, by so good an authority as Dr Theodore Gill, that the purple veil is the product of a single fish, and not so very large a fish either, as it rarely exceeds 3 feet in length, and that as many as 1,000,000 eggs may be contained in a single egg-mass. By allowing the eggs to develop under observation, Alexander Agassiz succeeded in identifying the parent fish as the Lophius piscatorius—variously known as the "Goose-fish," the "Allmouth," or the "Angler," one of the most remarkable fishes in existence.
It derived its name of "Goose-fish" from its "having been known to swallow live geese," a statement almost incredible; but a reputable fisherman told the late G. Brown Goode that "he once saw a struggle in the water, and found that a Goose-fish had swallowed the head and neck of a large loon, which had pulled it to the surface
Fig. i.—Three eggs embedded in the gelatinous membrane in which they are laid; magnified. (After A. Agassiz.)
Fig. 2.—Young Angler taken out of the egg just previous to hatching. [After A. Agassiz.)
and was trying to escape." There is authentic record of seven wild ducks having been taken from the stomach of one of them. Slyly approaching from below, they seize birds as they float upon the surface. Reliable Cape Cod fishermen, Captains Nathaniel E. Atwood and Nathaniel Blanchard, assured Dr D. H. Storer that "when opened entire sea-fowl, such as large gulls, are frequently found in their stomachs, which they supposed them to catch in the night, when they are floating upon the surface of the water." Dr Storer was also informed by Captain Leonard West, of Chilmark, Mass., that he had known a Goose-fish to be taken having in its stomach six coots in a fresh condition. These he considered to have been swallowed when they had been diving to the bottom in search of food.
Any one who has looked into the vast cavity behind the jaws of this fish will concede the aptness of the name "Allmouth." The fish is a most voracious, carnivorous animal—indeed omnivorous—and quite indiscriminate in its diet. In Massachusetts it is said to annoy the fishermen "by swallowing the wooden buoys attached to the lobster pots," and a man is stated to have caught one "by
Fig. 3.—Young Angler not long after hatching; the yolkbag has entirely disappeared. (After A. Agassiz.)
using his boat anchor for a hook." Another feature of the fish is the slowness of its digestive powers, which is aptly illustrated by Couch, who says that on one occasion there were found in the stomach of this fish "nearly three-quarters of a hundred herring; and so little had they suffered change that they were sold by the fishermen in the market without any suspicion in the buyer of the manner in which they had been obtained."
The name "Angler" is not one in general use among shoremen and fishermen. It is a book name, and was specially coined for the Lophius piscatorius by Thomas Pennant in 1776. In his British Zoölogy he says he "changed the old name of Fishing-frog for the more simple one of Angler" simply because he did not like the former, which was one of the popular names. There was no lack, however, of other popular names from which to choose. In England
Fig. 4.—Young Angler with 2 elongated dorsal rays and rudiment of third and 2 large ventral rays. (After A. Agassiz.)
the fish was known as the Fishing-frog, Frog-fish, Toad-fish, Pocket-fish, Monk-fish, Nass-fish, Sea-devil, Devil-fish, Wide-gut, Wide-gap, and Kettlemaw, and in America still other names were employed. On the Massachusetts coast it was known as the Goose-fish, in Rhode Island as the Bellows-fish, in Connecticut as the Molly-gut, and in North Carolina as the All-mouth.
Fig. 5.—Young Angler showing still greater increase in length and number of anterior dorsal and ventral rays. (After A. Agassiz.)
known about its young until the discovery of the embryonic fish within their floating cradle in the "purple veil," and their subsequent identification as Anglers by development under observation. Dr Theodore Gill has now brought together the scattered fragments of knowledge relating to the development of this fish in an illustrated article published among the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (vol. 47, part 4, May 6, 1905), entitled "The Life History of the Angler." All the statements given here are taken from this article.
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 illustrate various stages in the development of the Angler from the egg within the purple veil up to almost the adult form. In the stage of development shown by figure 6 the little fish when viewed from above, as in figure 7, reminds us somewhat of a long-tailed butterfly. In figure 8 the characteristic seaweed-looking appendages have been developed, and the fish is almost adult. In figure 9 the adult form is shown, and the peculiar nasal appendage with its frond-like extremity,
Fig. 6.—Young Angler in oldest pelagic stage, measuring 30 millimeters in length, seen in profile. (After A. Agassiz.)
which is supposed to serve as a bait for other fish, is well seen. The book name "Angler" is peculiarly appropriate to this fish in view of the fact that its chief occupation in life seems to consist in lying quietly at the bottom of the sea angling for other fish. According to Day, it often lies as if dead, "while its floating filaments, kept in motion by the tide, decoy other fish, and the Angler's tendril is no sooner touched than the game is caught."
Dr Theodore Gill quotes an interesting account of this fish written by Saville Kent, who had excellent opportunities of observing a large individual in the Manchester Aquarium in 1874.
Fig. 7.—Young Angler of oldest pelagic stage, seen from above. (After A. Agassiz.)
The attention of Saville Kent was struck by the marvelous way in which this specimen would disappear in the aquarium without any apparent hiding place. "He is ever slinking off to the rock-work, and establishing himself so closely in some snug corner that it requires, notwithstanding his large size, a considerable amount of diligent search to detect him."
While the creature lay perfectly still, ​it was difficult to distinguish the head of the fish from a piece of rock covered with sea-weed, calcareous sponges (Grantia compressa), ascidians, zoophytes, and the other low invertebrate forms which are usually to be seen on a rocky shore at low tide. The nasal appendage appeared to be the facsimile of a young frond of oar-weed (Laminaria digitata); but the most extraordinary mimicry of all appeared—where we would least expect it—in the creature's eyes! Saville Kent says:
Fig. 8.—Young Angler with most of the characteristics of adults, but larger pectorals and ventrals and less flattened head. (After Rüppell.)
"These organs are very large and prominent, the iris being conical in shape, of a yellow ground color, with longitudinal stripes of a darker shade, while the pupil, commencing abruptly at the summit, is of so jetty a hue that the aspect of the whole is that of a hollow truncated cone, resembling, with its longitudinal stripes, the deserted shell of an acorn barnacle, and with an amount of exactness that is apparent to the most ordinary observer.
"We have here in this fish, then, the most perfect possible embodiment of a rocky boulder, with its associated animal and vegetable growths.
"Lying prone at the bottom of the ocean among ordinary rocks and débris, it might well pass muster as an inanimate object, and the other fish on which it preys would approach it with impunity, and never discover their mistake until too late to escape from its merciless jaws.
"Ensconce the animal snugly, however, in the crevice of some precipitous submarine cliff, and the illusion is more perfectly complete. No strategy need now be exerted by the voracious fish to attract his prey; he has only to lie close and quiet, letting his tendrils sway to and fro in the passing current like the weeds around him, and the shoals will approach browsing the vegetation or pursuing their crustaceous diet—right into his very mouth."
H. A. L.
Fig. 9.—The Common Angler (Lophius piscatorius). (After W. von Wright in Smitt.)
For this and the preceding eight illustrations the Magazine is indebted to Dr Theodore Gill, of the Smithsonian Institution