#16 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA, 
the John Dory (Zeus ape) and the pilchard (Clupea pil- 
chardus).” * 
Although very inferior in beauty to the tropical fishes, our 
finny tribes are far superior in flavour, and may well challenge 
the world to produce their equals for the table. The turbot, 
cod, whiting, herring, whitebait, mackerel, sole, and even the 
salmon, though it belongs rather to fluviatile history than to the 
chronicles of the sea, may fairly be cited to testify to the truth 
of this assertion; so that surely we have no reason to complain 
of having been but indifferently provided for in the geographical 
distribution of fishes, which of all marine productions are the 
most important to man. 
The researches of Forbes led him to believe that “as we 
descend deeper and deeper, the denizens of the sea become 
fewer and fewer, indicating our approach towards a silent and 
desolate abyss, where life is either extinguished or exhibits but 
faint glimmerings to mark its lingering presence ;” but subse- 
quent deep-sea soundings, performed with improved dredging 
apparatuses, have led to the surprising result that the bottom 
of the ocean, even in its abyssal depths, far from being a dreary 
void, as was formerly imagined, is in reality a busy scene, 
absolutely teeming with hfe. And in this case, as in so many 
others, we have a fine instance of the truth of the observation 
that every new invention or discovery casts a new light upon 
some other province of human knowledge; for to the sub- 
marine telegraph we are indebted for the first certain proof of 
the existence of highly organised animals living at abyssal 
depths. 
In 1860 the submarine cable between Sardinia and Bona, on 
the coast of Africa, having completely failed, was picked up 
from a depth exceeding one thousand fathoms, and found 
encrusted with various shells and corals. All previous observa- 
tions with reference to the existence of living creatures at 
extreme depths had been liable to doubt from two sources. In 
the first place the methods of deep-sea soundings were still so 
imperfect that there was always a possibility, from the action of 
deep currents upon the sounding-line or from other causes, of a 
greater depth being indicated than really existed ; and, secondly, 
* Godwin Austen, Natural History of the European Seas, pp. 103, 104. 
