70 THE FAUNA OF THE DEEP SEA 



N. grandis . 1,785 fms. Eye ^th length of the head 



2 

 9 



macrops . . 375 ,, 



ocellatus . 350 

 gillii . Ill 



1 

 3 



Similarly in the species of the widely distributed 

 deep-sea genus Maorurus : the species M. parallelus, 

 ja/ponicuSj M. fasciatus, &c., usually living in water 

 less than 1,000 fathoms deep, have large and in some 

 cases very large (M. fasciatus) eyes, but Macrurus 

 filica/uda, M. fernandezianus, M. lioceplialus, M. 

 Mwrayij M. armatus have small eyes. 



Some deep-sea fish have their eyes reduced to 

 a mere rudiment ; such as Ceratias uranoscopus, C. 

 carunculatus, Melanocetus Murrayi, Typhlonus nasus, 

 and Apliyonus gelatinosus, but not even a rudiment 

 of an eye is to be found in Ipnops Murray i. 



But the fish of the greatest depths are by no means 

 always characterised by small eyes. Malacosteus, a 

 typical deep-sea form, has very large eyes, and so 

 have Bathylayus, living in the enormous depth of 

 3,000 fathoms, and Bathytroctes, in 1,090 and 2,150 

 fathoms. 



The result of recent deep-sea work, then, has been 

 to show that as we proceed from shallow shore water 

 to depths of 500 to 900 fathoms the eyes of the 

 fish become larger, but in greater depths than 1,000 



