New-York tribune., 1904-10-22
STRANGE SEA DWELLERS.
Mr. BuHen,S True Stories of the
VGsty Deep.
DENIzENs OF THE DEEP. BY Frank T. Bulle

DENIzENs OF The DEEP BY Frank 7. Bullen.
II r; g. s: Win I've ttESHinty-5oHr % Illustrations a. by
SvO. PIP. $50. Fleming II. Reven Company.
Mr.. Bullen has been inspired by the prevailing
craze for nature books to do for the dwelIers
in the what Kipling, Thompson-Seton and
their followers have done for the frequenters
OF the jungle and the forest. The result is
fascinating volume. which owes nothing Of its
success to fits acknowledged models and pre-
cursors. Only in three instances does the au-
thor adopt the photographed form. allowing
the sperm whale the albacore and the albatross
to tell their stories in their own words. Inter
esting as these life histories are. and close to
the truth they seem, and we'll may be, they
are bound to lose something Of verify by the
necessity of making the putative narrators just
go much wiser than they really The ac-
counts that Mr.. BulIen gives in his words
of other denizens of the deep are quite as en-
tertaining and far more convincing.
1t is new and little understood world that
he opens up to us. Much. of course. has been
told about the fishes in the and the fowls
that fly above it. but 1t has mostly been related
either by naturalists. who lack his decorative
ima gination," or by sailor-men, who have too
much of It, Possessed. himself, OF the accurate
observation Of the scientist as we'll as OK the
story telling faculty Of the novelist, 1t has been
a constant cause of surprise to Mr.. Bullen that
the men who go down to the sea in ships should
generally pay so little heed to what they ma
there and that they should carry away impress
sions SO at variance with obvious facts and be-
logged by superstition. The outcome has been'
on the one hand, an accumulation Of dry scien-
tifc data and, on the other. mass Of erroneous
information of which Victor Hugo's descrip-
ton Of the octopus may be taken as striking
example.
The value of Mr. Bullen's book lies IN its truth;
the charm Of II, in his lively sympathy with
every living thing, even down to the haccld ana
placid Jellyfsh, the hideous squid, and as ne
claims the much maligned shark His imaglna-
ton, decorative though 1t is, has been well re-
strained and only carries him in the direction OF
logical inference from well noted facts. His gen.
eral impression is that the sea dwellers live, on
the whole happy lives, due to abundance OF
food and to their lack of imagination. which
renders them unconscious of danger, save in Its
actual presence, and not always then. He cites
the majestic and uncouth gambols of the whales
as evidence Of their mere delight in living, de-
clining to attribute the cetacean frolics to the
irritation caused by their numerous parasites
although he is forced to admit that the aimless
perpendicular leapings Of the bonito must be due
TO the almost intolerable agony produced by the
peculiar sea vermin which infest this unusually
with the whale is extensive. must be apparent
TO all who have had the pleasure Of being liter
ary mess-mates with him on 1.-The Cruise Of the
Cachalot" ard it is certainly pleasanter to fall
in with his belief. and TO regard the useful
bonito as unfortunte exception TO the rule
Of submarine cheerfulness. The shark, too,
merits a degree of perhaps srudglngly given
sympathy, as its we'll known voracity is shown
to spring from the inordinate secretion OF Its
gastric Juices which renders it prey to a never
satisfied hunger, so that 1t will swallow bag
of cinders thrown from a ships deck with the
same apparent avidity that it shows in devour-
ing the more succulent and helpless seafarer who
may tumble from aloft
An interesting chapter IS devoted to the
serpent. although only to prove that such
creature really exists. The fact that trace
or bone of one has ever been supplied for
animation by naturalists, the author regards as
fairly conclusive on this point, without prejudice
to the possibility that the Civilized world may
one day be startled by the appearance Of some
vast and hitherto unknown monster from the
depths of the ocean" Mr.. Bullen firmly believes
that "cuttlefsh lurI in the darkling caves OF
ocean. a sight of which would justify any sea
serpent yarn, however Munchausen-like," and
he adds:
enormous individuals of regalecus oarfsh Of
which DR.. Goode says that 1t seems quite safe
pents which have been described swimming
pidly the surface with a horse-ike head
like crest of red brown But from resalecus
Of twenty feet long TO a sea serpent capable OF
take it