Holt and Caldeewood — Rejwrt on the Rarer Fishes. 363 



1889 that the investigation of the abysmal fish-fauna became the subject of chief 

 inquiry. In that year Mr. Green, who had co-operated with Professor Haddon in 

 his earlier cruises, and to whose enthusiasm and practical experience much of 

 the success attending them was due, carried out a series of investigations in the 

 " Flying Fox," which proved of peculiar interest. To certain improvements in 

 the fishing gear, which Mr. Grreen's practical knowledge of trawling suggested to 

 him, must be attributed, in great part, the unwonted proportion of fish in the 

 hauls of that year. Dr. Giinther's paper* for the first time enabled us to realize 

 how vast a mass of unexplored material lay ready to our hands ; and, in the same 

 year, Mr. Bourne's observations, in H.M.S. "Research," Captain Aldrich, R.N., 

 took up the work at the point where Mr. Green had left it, and yielded most 

 valuable results. f 



These had led us to expect much from continued work in the same field. To 

 quote Giinther's words: — "Not merely in the addition of a number of unknown 

 forms to our list, but equally, and even more, in the certainty that many 

 of the mysteries, which observations limited to the littoral fauna must for ever 

 leave unexplained, will be cleared up by a study of the Pelagic and Bathybial 

 conditions." 



The Society's Survey offered peculiar advantages. Whilst its objects — of an 

 economic nature — confined the fishing operations for the most part to the littoral 

 waters, it was none the less incumbent that the deeper regions should also be to 

 some extent explored. Our hopes have not proved without foundation. While 

 extending the horizontal range of several species, by their addition to the British 

 or Irish fauna, we are also able to extend the vertical range of some of them, and 

 it will be seen that this extension may throw light upon the life-history of several 

 forms. 



The points in common between the fauna of the West of Ireland and of the 

 Lusitanian region have for many years compelled the attention of naturalists, 

 both in regard to terrestrial organisms and to marine invertebrates. If the 

 similarity of the fish fauna has attracted less notice, it is probably because less 

 attention has been devoted to it, and, perhaps, also because, so far as is known, 

 it is very similar to that of the south-western coast of England. With regard to 

 the latter, the great help which Raffaele's Mediterranean researches give to 

 workers in the embryology of the Teleosteans of that region is, as Mr. Cunningham 

 has observed, a sufficient proof of the close resemblance of the faunas. 



That a connection should exist between the western Irish and Scandinavian 

 fish-faunas appears, at first sight, less remarkable, since both belong to the North 

 Atlantic. Accordingly it does not seem to have been the subject of special 



* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1889, p. 415. 



f Journ. Marine Biol. Assoc, N. S., vol. i., p. 306. 



3U2 



