1 66 



ANIMAL LIFE OF THE DEEP SEA BOTTOM 



Amphipod crustacean (Eui) Lhcnes gryllus), nine centimetres long; caught both on the bottom 

 and swimming well above it. 5,050 metres, Indian Ocean. 



family which have most species in the deep; the great variety was con- 

 fusing, and having only a small library on board we soon ran into diffi- 

 culties in deciding whether what we had caught were new species or not. 

 It will take some little time yet before we can be quite certain, because in 

 many cases we must make direct comparison with earlier catches in 

 museums scattered all over the world. The fact is that the brotulids have 

 played every possible variation on the type which in our Northern Euro- 

 pean fish population is represented by the viviparous blenny or eel-pout; 

 that is to say, a fish with a rather large head, a short body, and a long, 

 rather compressed tail. The most specialized — one is tempted to say 

 degenerate — type is the blind transparent fish just mentioned, of which 

 we found several species, while the normal type is rather like the fish 

 we caught deepest down (p. 185). The fact that in this trawl there 

 was also another brotulid of the more common type was therefore not 

 so strange. 



The remaining six fishes (Fig. p. 169) were a very fine catch; only 

 a few individuals were known, and here we took six in one trawl. This 

 also is a blind species, with an elongated body, poorly developed muscles, 

 and therefore low swimming powers. It has been known since the days of 



