220 DEEP SEA FISHES. 
Compared with 7. trachyrhynchus from the Mediterranean this species is 
more massive forward, less pointed on the snout, and has a larger mouth 
and a broader forehead. 
Station. Latitude. is Longitude, Depth. Temperature, Bottom, 
2818 0° 29'S. 89° 54’ 30” W. 392 fathoms 43.9° F. Wh. and bk. S. 
3402 0° 57’ 30” S. 89° 3’ 30” W. 421 §§ 423K. R. Glob. Oz. 
PLEURONECTOIDS. 
The marine “ Flat Fishes”? are somewhat generally distributed in all seas, 
with the possible exception of those around the poles. They live quite at 
the bottom, are active, strong swimmers and apparently have maintained 
themselves at the upper levels of the ocean floor better than more sluggish 
forms. None of them have yet been taken from so great a depth as one 
thousand fathoms. In fact they have hardly been ranked with the deep 
sea fishes; but the vertical range has been carried farther down by each 
succeeding expedition until if is no longer possible to exclude them. The 
deepest record of any of the species is that of Ci/harichthys dinoceros G. B., 
of 955 fathoms, in the West Indies. The nearer approaches to this are 
Limands Beanii Goode, at 896, and Gilyptocephalus cynoglossus Linné, at 858 
fathoms, both from the northwestern Atlantic. In the northeastern Atlantic, 
G. cynoglossus is noted by Giinther at 752 fathoms, and Solea profundicola 
Vaill. was taken by the “ Talisman” at 684 fathoms. The greatest depth 
assigned a member of the family in the northeastern Pacific is that of Emdass- 
ichthys bathybius Gilb., taken by the “ Albatross” at 603 fathoms in the 
Santa Barbara channel. The greatest reported in the northern part of the 
Indian Ocean from the “Investigator” collections are Symphurus Wocd-Masont 
Alc. at 490, and both Symphurus septemstriatus Ale. and Poecilopselta pra- 
longa Alc. at 400 fathoms. At present more than fifty species are known to 
occur at depths greater than one hundred fathoms; of these, twenty are 
on record from more than three hundred, seven at more than five hundred, 
and three at more than eight hundred fathoms. Though the vertical range 
has been thus extended downward no special deep sea characters distin- 
guishing bathybial from shoal water species would appear to have been 
acquired. Luminous organs, obsolescent eyes, or special organs of touch, 
other than elongate fin rays, have not yet been discovered in the family. 
The majority of the species known to descend below three hundred fathoms 
from the surface are found to range upward to depths of a hundred and 
