CHAP, v.] GENERAL CONCLUSIONS, 299 



and apparently stunted, were widely though sparsely diffused, 

 and exce])tionally a large and handsome form occurred, as, for 

 example, a singularly beautiful volute in 1600 fathoms at Sta- 

 tion CXLVIL, in the Southern Sea ; some line species of 3far- 

 gar'da in 1260 and 1675 fathoms south of Kerguelen ; and a 

 large bivalve, allied to Lima,, which turned up in deep dredg- 

 ings at rare intervals at stations the most widely separated in 

 the Atlantic and the Pacilic. 



Cephalopods came up in the trawl occasionally, but in most 

 cases they belonged to the peculiar gelatinous group which are 

 well known to be pelagic, and had doubtless been taken while 

 the trawl was passing through the upper water. In some few 

 cases species had evidently come from the bottom, but not from 

 any great depth. It is singular that only on one occasion we 

 took a specimen of the animal of Spirula, although the delicate 

 little white coiled shell is one of the commonest objects on the 

 beach throughout the tropics — sometimes washed up in a long 

 white line which can be seen from any distance. 



After the method of dredging with the trawl was intro- 

 duced, one or two or more fishes were taken at almost every 

 haul, showing that, while not abundant, they were universally 

 present. With these, however, as with the decapod Crusta- 

 ceans, the question often arose whether the specimen had been 

 brought up from the bottom, or had been taken by the trawl 

 on its way up. In many cases this could not be answered with 

 certainty ; but it seems that certain families which are met with 

 very frecpiently — such as the Sternoptychidse and the Scopeli- 

 dse, many of them remarkable for their grotesque forms, their 

 brilliant coloring, and metallic lustre, and the symmetrical rows 

 of deeply pigmented sense or phosphorescent organs which 

 sometimes extend along the greater part of the body (Fig. 62) 

 — are in most, if not all, cases from the upper waters ; while 

 certain other families — for example, the Ophidiidse and the 

 Macruridse — live at or near the bottom. "What we know of 



