82 DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN 



differing from it in the number of muscle segments ; some of 

 them were only 4.2 cm. long. There were further some remark- 

 able deep-sea fish, including a curious Ceratias (Fig. 59), and 

 the little rare cuttle-fish, Spimla (Fig. 60), which is of such 

 interest to zoologists. 



During the night some fiying-fish (Fig. 61) with mature eggs 

 came on board, and on our way back to Gran Canaria we saw a 

 quantity of flying-fish near the island. We anchored once more 

 at Porta de la Luz on Tuesday, 24th May. 



From the From Plymouth to the west coast of Africa we had been 



Uie^Azores" chiefly cruising over the coast banks and continental slopes. 



Fig. 61. — Flying-Fish [Exocaiiis spilopus, Val.). Nat. size, 32 cm. 



Now we were to begin a voyage across the Atlantic from the 

 Canary Islands to the Azores and thence to Newfoundland. 

 Our task henceforth was therefore to investigate a deep 

 ocean, the average depth of which may roughly be put at 

 5000 metres. Everything accordingly had to be so arranged 

 that we could lower our instruments and appliances to profound 

 depths. 



The experiences of previous expeditions had made it clear 

 that the larger organisms, at any rate, are sparsely scattered over 

 the vast ocean depths. We therefore prepared ourselves for 

 long pelagic hauls of a day's or a night's duration, during the 

 course of which it would be necessary to employ simultaneously 

 as many appliances as we could at different depths, partly to 



