VIJI INTRODUfTION. 



rrintiiig: OHico. bas also aided materially in the work by liis advi(!e. Mr. Barton A. Keaii 

 lias aided in the handling of the eollectious and illustrations and measurement of speci- 

 mens, and Mr. J. L. Willigo has rendered useful service in the preparation of the tables of 

 locality and distribution and in proof reading. 



Only twenty years ago the lish fauna of the deej) sea was represented in collections by 

 forty or fifty specimens, representing not more than twenty species at the most — acci- 

 dental waifs jticked up at the surface or cast ashore by the waves — "like the few stray 

 bodies of strange red men which tra<lition reports to have been washed on the shores of 

 the Old World before the discovery of the New, and which served to indicate the existence 

 of unexplored realms inhabited by unknown races, but not to supply information about their 

 character, habits, and history.'" 



If the coming twenty years shall produce one-tenth so much in the way of discovery in 

 the life of the d('0|> sciis, it will lie more than it now seems reasonable to expect. 



(i. Brown (Joodk. 



Tarleton II. Bean. 

 Smithsonian Institution, 



Wellington City, April 1, 1895. 



' Edward Forbes. 



