38 A. Alcock — Exhibition of Specimens. []\Iauch, 



with sea-weeds and zoophytes, find many of them have tlieir skin beset 

 with filamentous outgrowths which look like wavincf fronds of sea-weed 

 and gi\'e these fishes a most deceptive I'eseinblance to the weed- 

 encrusted objects among which they lie concealed. By this means not 

 onl}' does the fish escape the notice of its enemies, but it avoids 

 scaring— if it does not actually attract — the little animals upon which 

 it preys. 



In the present instance there can be no doubt that the sluggish little 

 fish covered with waving zoophytes would benefit in the way supposed. 



On the other hand the zoophytes must receive as much good as 

 they give ; for instead of being fixed for life in one place and being 

 entii-ely dependent on curi'ents of water for food and air, they are 

 continually being carried to fresh waters and pastures new by the fish 

 upon which they are growing. 



I have already — in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for 

 September, 1892 — given the proofs that the relatioaa that exists between 

 this particular species of fish and this particular species of zoophyte is 

 a definite and constant, and not an accidental, one, and that it is a 

 reciprocally beneficial, not a parasitic one, and I only allude to the 

 subject agaiu to-night because Capt. Andex'son, the present Naturalist 

 on the Investigator, has been fortunate enough to catch recently, off 

 the Malabar coast, no less than 16 specimens — of which this is one — of 

 the fish, all of which have the commensal polyp growing on them. 



The coloured models of deep-sea fishes that are here exhibited are 

 interesting iu two different aspects : first, as representing in as nearly 

 as possible their natural form and colour — undistorted and unbleached 

 iu the manner of spirit specimens — curiously modified forms of life that 

 are inaccessible to most observers; and secondly', as illustiating the 

 application of native talent to the elucidation of Natural Science. 



It is unnecessary to speak at length of the peculiar conditions 

 under which life exists in the great depths of the sea, the only facts that 

 I need here call to remembrance are (1) that no sunlight can penetrate 

 into the abysses and that therefore (2) no plants can live there. 



It follows (1) that animals that have no eyes will not, merely on 

 that account, be worse off in the struggle for existence than animals 

 that have them ; (2) that animals that possess their own means of 

 illumination will have a fine field for development, and (3) that there 

 is likely to be a specially keen competition between carnivorous animals — 

 a competition likely to lead to the development of formidable teetli 

 and maws. 



These three evolutional possibilities are all exemplified in actual 

 fact and are all illustrated by these models. 



1. Tauredophidium Hextii, the subject of the first model, is at 

 present only known from the Bay of Bengal, where it lives at a deptli 



