ANIMAL LIFE OF THE DEEP SEA BOTTOM 



169 



Blind deep-sea fish (Ipnops) with Large yellow, plate-shaped organs on the head. 

 Natural size. 



trawl at about 1,000 metres from the bottom, which was 5,000 metres 

 down, I have no doubt that the two species from two remotely related 

 genera, Typhlonus and Macrouroides, have an identical manner of feeding. 



But to return to Typhlonus; this was one of the fishes which had not 

 been caught since the days of the Challenger in the 1870; and after catch- 

 ing Acanthonus we did not doubt that we should also obtain many 

 Typhlonus once we had got properly started. The Challenger had taken 

 only two, but we with our large trawl would surely get them by the dozen. 

 So we thought. 



Yet we had to wait nine months, till x\ugust 21, 1951, when we were 

 cheerfully making good headway southward from the Philippine Trench 

 towards the Java Deep. There was not a great deal of time for fishing 

 on the way, but we felt that we must make one attempt in the Celebes Sea, 

 that strange inland sea with oceanic depths. The trawl went out at 5,090 

 metres and came up slightly torn; but in it was the fabulous fish Typhlo- 

 nus in as many as five specimens ranging from eight to 30 centimetres 

 in length, besides nine other bottom fishes. It was in the Celebes Sea, 75 

 )ears before, that the Challenger had fished one of her specimens, the 

 other being taken in the Pacific outside. We obtained no more on the rest 

 of the voyage; and so, as in the case of Acanthonus, we must for the time 

 being regard Typhlonus as an example of a deep-sea fish which has spe- 

 cial requirements and therefore a more limited distribution than most 

 others. A likely explanation is the food supply brought by drifting pieces 

 of vegetation from ri\ers and mangrove swamps; there were some in the 

 trawl, including a couple of palm fruits (Fig. p. 172), which were satu- 



