I've been waiting a long time to see a hagfish in person. Last year I took a class miles out to sea, hauled up traps from 300 feet, and came up with nothing but mud. Today, however, we discovered not just one hagfish--but fifty Buckets full of squirming jawless beasts that seemed to slither straight out of the Cambrian Period. Their slime is more like a jelly made of glass--a marvelous thing. I am here to declare that a day with fifty hagfish is a good day.
(For more, read "Secrets of the Slime Hag" (pdf)" in Scientific American by Frederic Martini)
[Image courtesy of Charlotte Zimmer, age 9]
