San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-09-13
Uy ICS OUU
Radiance, the
Snail That
Flies Through
Water on
Wings

how much further their development
can go.
Many of the undersea fish, Mr. Beebe
found, were perfectly transparent, and
could only be seen by allowing the light
to pass through them. In this way they
were saved from attacks of other and
stronger sea animals. II was merely by
accident that the Searchers did not throw
away one of the rarest crustaceans dis
covered. This almost invisible animal was
about as large as half-dollar, but as
thin as paper, and as transparent as glass.
The scientists who had gone carefully over
the contents of the net were about to
throw the refuse back in the sea when
some dirt fell on the invisible crustacean
and betrayed his presence.
Discovering rare fish was not without
its handicaps for the scientists on the Arc
turus. Off the Galapagos Islands there
were many rare species, but it was almost
impossible to secure more than one
variety. These were the huge and raven
Gus groupers, which would swallow all the
bait designed for other fish, and which
"VIu even cat the bdTe NOOK, and at
tempt to chew up the nets On number
of occasions the groupers would even at
tack the whrlng propelIers of a motor
boat with the utmost ferocity. In an at
tempt to drive the eager groupers away.
and allow some of the other fish to bite
William Merriam, one of the fishermen,
struck angrily at group of them with a
sock he had just taken off preparatory
to wading ashore. To Mr. Merriam's
amazement and annoyance a dozen of
the groupers snatched the sock triumph
antly, and swan Off with it, fighting fierce
ly for its possession.
Sharks, too, were an annoyance,
though not of the dangerous man-eating
variety. The sharks would not modest the
operations of the scientists until Moorish
sea idol, or a rare Ratchet fish, with ewes
which look directly upward. was shared on
the hook Then the sharks would rush
from their hiding places and grab their
helpless victims, to the disgust of the hard
working scientists
One OF the most amusing. and at the
same time irritating, experiences of the
expedition was the Battle of the Boobies.
When the Arcturus steamed into Chatham
Bay, on the Pacific island 500 miles from
Panama, it was greeted by dense cloud
of gannets, or boobies, flying through the
air with raucOus cries of joy. These STU
pid birds are too far away from mankind
to know fear, and when they saw the light
decks of the ship as it steamed in at dusk
hundreds of the birds tapped their awk-
ward way to it and crashed heavily
aboard. Once on deck they waddled in
all directions, in spite of frantic efforts of
the scientists and the crew to head
them off.
Into the library, cabins, dining room.
wherever there was an open door the
boobies poured, fighting furiously among
themselves, and screaming in excitement.
Then occurred the really distressing fes-
ture of the situation.
No sooner would the boobies find
themselves in unfamiliar surroundings
and unable to find the door they had used
to enter than they would toss up their
beaks, and disgorge their most recently
eaten fish as peace offering to their I'M
willing hosts.
But in spite of all the hardships of,tbe
ocean explorers Mr.. Beebe ar
ciates arrived in New Yorkp
over the 'pT,pd
der the sea which -
Hundreds of new sp
in nets from depthse beng
the most shallow tIv merci-
plored in special