IX PELAGIC ANIMAL LIFE 615 



ACERATIID^ 



Aceratias mollis, A. Br., 1910, Stations 45, 49, 51, 64. 



Aceratias macrorhinus indiats, A. Br., 1910, Stations 45, 49, 51, 56, 67 (see 

 Fig. 470). 



Antennariid^ 

 Anteniiaritis iiiarmorali/s, Giinth., 1910, Stations 64, 66, 67 (see Fig. 471). 



Sub Order-PLECTOGNATHI 



Division— SCLERODERMI 



Balistid^ 

 Mo/iacanfhiis sp., 1910, Station 67 (see Fig. 472). 



Division— GYMNODONTES 

 Tetrodontid.e: 

 Tetrodon spengleri, Bl., 1910, Station 37. 



MOLID/E 



Mola rotunda, Cuv., 1910, Station 87 (see Fig. 102, p. 119). 



2. Distribution of Pelagic Animals 



The foregoing remarks and lists show that our knowledge 

 of the distribution of pelagic animals in the ocean is now 

 considerable, especially as regards small forms, which are 

 easily captured in closing nets, and whose habitat may therefore 

 be localized with accuracy. As to larger organisms the difficulties 

 increase in proportion to their size. Thus only five of the 151 

 pelagic species of fishes taken during the " Valdivia " Expedition 

 were captured in closing nets, but the bathymetrical distribution 

 of certain species was approximately determined by lowering 

 large vertical nets to different depths and comparing the 

 catches. By studying the material thus obtained, Brauer^ 

 succeeded in ascertaining the bathymetrical distribution, or at 

 least the upper limit, of several common species. 



In Chapter II. I have described our methods of capturing 

 pelagic animals by means of large closing nets and by simul- 

 taneously towing eight or ten nets at different depths, and in 

 Chapter III. I have given particulars of some of the catches 

 thus secured. My object in this chapter is to show in some 

 detail the knowledge now available as to the vertical and 

 horizontal distribution of pelagic animals and animal-communities 



^ Brauer, loc. cit. 



