SOURCE: "In Saturn's Realm" (Pearson's Magazine, May 1900) by George Griffith

DESCRIPTION: "The larger of the creatures appeared to have a certain amount of respect for each other. Now and then they witnessed a battle-royal between two of the monsters who were pursuing the same prey. Their method of attack was as follows: the assailant would rise above his opponent or prey, and then, dropping on to its back, envelope it and begin tearing at its sides and under parts with huge beak-like jaws, somewhat resembling those of the largest kind of the earthly octopus, only very much larger. The substance composing their bodies appeared to be not unlike that of a terrestrial jelly-fish, but much denser, and having the tenacity of soft India rubber save at the double ends, where it was much harder, in fact a good deal more like horn. When one of them had overpowered an enemy or a victim the two sank down into the vegetation, and the victor began to eat the vanquished. Their means of locomotion consisted of huge fins, or rather half fins, half wings, of which they had three laterally arranged behind each head, and four much longer and narrower, above and below, which seemed to be used mainly for steering purposes. They moved with equal ease in either direction, and they appeared to rise or fall by inflating or deflating the middle portions of their bodies, somewhat as fish do with their swimming bladders." ("In Saturn's Realm" by George Griffith)

NOTES: The large sea monsters of Saturn actually swim through the thick atmosphere so much like an ocean. These creatures are attracted to light despite their large eyes. The sea creatures have adapted to the pressure of the layer in which they live. When Lord Redgrave pulls the Astronef out of the cloud and out towards space the sea creatures blow up like balloons and burst. These creatures may be a low branch in the story evolution on Saturn. At the South Pole there are dinosaurs and mammoths and other extinct creatures going through Earth's evolution.

HISTORY: The idea of evolution being re-played out may have inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs' Caspak novels in which evolution is recapitulated in every individual from amoeba to human.