PELAGIC ANIMAL LIFE 



^33 



the fry of the horse mackerel, the young of Scombresox saurus 

 (a near relation of the gar-pike), and of the flying fish {Exocoehts). 

 These forms were with one exception observed only in our 

 southern section. 



A peculiar group of fishes are the Sargasso fish, which live Sargasso 

 on or around the Sargasso weed. We found Antennarius 

 inarmoratus, SyngnathiLS pelagicus, Hippocampus ramulostis, and 

 MonacantJms, together with a peculiar Sargasso fauna, including 

 small crabs {^Plmies minutus) and small prawns of several kinds 



Fig. 479. — Distribution of Salpa zonaria. 



(see Plates V. and VI., Chapter X.). But besides the Sargasso 

 fish various remarkable forms occur in the surface waters of 

 the ocean, such as the " wreck-fish," Liriis 7nedttsophagus and 

 L. ovalis, Polyprion americanus, and the pilot fish {Nazccrates 

 ductor), taken by us to the south of the Azores, where salpse 

 and large medusae were present in such numbers, as well as the 

 enormous sunfish i^Mola), harpooned due north of the Azores. 



A community nearly as peculiar as the Sargasso fauna exists 

 in the north-eastern corner of the area investigated by us, 

 extending from the Azores to Ireland and thence to Rockall 



