8 THE DISCOBOLI. 



called the Spinous Lump, from the North Atlantic, descends to considerable 

 depths. A third and a fourth species of the family Gychptendm are de- 

 scribed from the North Pacific. A couple of peculiar Lumps with a single 

 •dorsal fin, Liparopsidcv, were discovered in the North Pacific, and recently 

 Professor Vaillant has indicated a third from the Straits of Magellan. Of 

 the genus Liparis, of the Liparididce, three species occur in the North 

 Atlantic, four in the North Pacific, and three in the Antarctic regions, 

 near the southern end of South America. Gareproctus, of the deep-sea 

 forms in the family, has the disk much reduced in size ; three of its 

 species are from the North Atlantic, and one from the North Pacific. 

 Another of the genera from great depths, Paraliparis, of the same family, 

 has entirely lost the disk, and with it all traces of the ventral fins have 

 disappeared ; three of its species, as at present recognized, are Northern 

 Atlantic, and one has been reported from the North Pacific. From the 

 foregoing it might be shown that the Discoboles are more numerous toward 

 the Arctic regions, but the fact that the small amount of investigating thus 

 far done at the far South has discovered so large a proportion of the whole 

 number of species noted makes it appear very hazardous to assume that 

 they are any less abundant in that direction. If, in connection with this, 

 we take into account recent discoveries in deep-sea work, we can, to say 

 the least, hardly avoid admitting a possible distribution of the Discoboles 

 from one of the icy zones to the other through the frigid waters of great 

 depths. The conditions far below the ocean surface in the torrid zone, 

 as to temperature, pressure, and existence of animal food, not being essen- 

 tially different from those obtaining in localities in which some of the forms 

 are known to occur, there seems to be no apparent reason why we should 

 not expect to meet with representatives of one or another of the genera, 

 or with allied forms hitherto unknown, in the results of future explorations 

 of the sea bottom in the equatorial regions. With an ascertained existence 

 in the North and in the South, and again in portions of the deep sea, antici- 

 pation of a distribution of these fishes that shall be more or less extensive 

 throughout the greater depths of the ocean from the Arctic to the An- 

 tarctic does not appear at all unreasonable.* In the surface waters of the 



* In collections placed in ray hands by Professor Agassiz for investigation since this work has been 

 in press, 1 find sufficient grounds for announcing the confirmation of these suggestions, and the fact 

 of the existence of a subequatorial distribution of the Discoboli. The material is of that recently 

 gathered in the Pacific by the Steamer "Albatross" of the United States Fishery Commission. 

 Among the fishes collected by tliis vessel there are species of both Careproctus and Paraliparis that 



