V] 



OF THE QUIET OF THE DEEP SEA 



423 



Fishes shew a vast though hmited variety of form; and some of 

 the strangest shapes are found in the great depths of the ocean. 

 Here, in unchanging temperature, in darkness save for a few 

 phosphorescent rays, above all in unruffled stillness and eternal 



Fig. 138. Deep-sea fishes (Stomiatidae). a,Lamprotoxusflagellibarbis; b, Eustomias 

 dactylobus; c, E. parri; d, E. schmidti; e, E. silvescens. After Tate Regan and 

 Trewavas. 



calm*, the conditions of hfe are strange indeed. In deep-sea fishes 

 length and attenuation are common characters of the body and of 

 its parts. A barbel below the hp may grow to ten times the 

 whole length of the fish ; it ends, commonly, in a httle bulb or blob ; 

 it may give off threadlike branches, and these last slender filaments 



* In Overbeck's jet-experiments {supra, p. 394) the water into which the jet is 

 led must first stand for many hours, till all internal movements and temperature- 

 differences are eliminated. 



