POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



IS 



by all in the welfare of all, a wholesome 

 public opinion, and an intelligent public 

 spirit, that have now disappeared. Then 

 Lincoln's ideal of government of the people, 

 for the people, by the people, was realized in 

 thousands of communities where the hope of 

 it and even the imagination of it are not now 

 entertained. We have gained that the value 

 of which we can not calculate with railroads 

 and telegraphs, and the changes which have 

 come over our social life ; but it is equally 

 impossible to estimate what, in turn, we 

 have lost. 



Deep - Sea Fishes. Remembering the 

 darkness and the enormous pressure of the 

 water in the depths of the ocean, no one will 

 be surprised that the forms and the organs 

 of deep-sea fishes differ greatly from those 

 of species which live near the surface. Un- 

 less among microscopic creatures, no such 

 curious and grotesque shapes can be found 

 in the animal kingdom as among these fishes. 

 Some resemble the ribbon-fishes of our own 

 seas, being long and slender, like the scab- 

 bard of a sword. Others are fashioned after 

 the type of our angler-fish, having organs 

 about the mouth suggestive of a bait to at- 

 tract its prey. Some terminate in a sharply 

 pointed tail instead of the familiar form. 

 One strange form is Bathypterois longicauda, 

 of which one specimen only has been taken, 

 from a depth of 2,550 fathoms in the middle 

 of the South Pacific. This fish was three 

 inches long, with a big head and tail and a 

 very slender body. The uppermost pectoral 

 fin was longer than the whole fish, and was 

 forked from its middle. Some species have 

 huge mouths with bodies like loose sacs, ca- 

 pable of prodigious distention when they 

 seize upon a large victim. Macrurus crassi- 

 ceps has a huge head with hardly any body. 

 The hues of deep-sea fish are mostly simple. 

 Their bodies are either black, pink, or sil- 

 very; though some which are black when 

 preserved were blue on being brought to the 

 surface. In only a few are some filaments 

 or the fin rays of a scarlet color. Black 

 spots on the fins or dark cross-bars on the 

 body are of extremely rare occurrence. Few 

 people are aware how difficult it is to procure 

 the deep-sea fishes. Their tissues are ex- 

 tremely delicate, so that the dredge often 

 mutilates them. Frequently, too, in coming 



up from the bottom, on the pressure gradu- 

 ally growing less, the gases which they con- 

 tain, expanding, tear their way out. Espe- 

 cially is this the case with those which pos- 

 sess a swim-bladder. This is almost always 

 ruptured a3 the fish comes to the surface. 

 Indeed, some specimens have been found 

 floating in a dying state on the waves, from 

 having seized upon prey which was too pow- 

 erful for them, and in struggling to escape 

 dragged them into the upper waters, when 

 some rupture took place and they floated 

 helplessly to the surface. The most curious 

 part of the organization of deep-sea fishes is 

 undoubtedly the phosphorescent or luminous 

 organs which distinguish several well-known 

 species. In some of these the eyes seem 

 entirely absent or only rudimentary. Thus, 

 Tpnops Murrai/i, taken from a depth of 1,600 

 to 2,150 fathoms, possesses no eyes. It has 

 a depressed head, with a broad snout, and 

 the upper surface of the head is covered 

 with a pair of transparent membranes, car- 

 rying a luminous organ divided into two 

 symmetrical halves. Scopelus is another 

 phosphorescent species, with a line of " eye- 

 like, pearl-colored organs " running on each 

 side of the fish from head to tail. Dr. Giin- 

 ther, in his " Introduction to the Study of 

 Fishes," has given the possible uses of these 

 organs as, first, to enable the fish to see; 

 second, if placed on barbels and the like, to 

 allure prey ; third, to terrify foes. Of course, 

 the luminous appearance departs at death. 



If there were no Friction. Having 



shown that friction is an insuperable impedi- 

 ment to the realization of perpetual motion, 

 Prof. Hele Shaw observes that " if we are 

 inclined to regret this fact, a little reflection 

 on what would occur if friction ceased to 

 act may not be uninstructive, for the whole 

 face of nature would be at once changed, 

 and much of the dry land, and, even more 

 rapidly, most of our buildings, would disap- 

 pear beneath the sea. Such inhabitants as 

 remained a short time alive would not only 

 be unable to provide themselves with fire or 

 warmth, but would find their very clothes 

 falling back to the original fiber from 

 which they were made ; and if not destroyed 

 in one of many possible ways such as by 

 falling meteors, no longer dissipated by 

 friction through the air, or by falling masses 



