XX THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGEE. 



pretiosus, the "Escolar," which "is taken with an ordinary bait at a depth (the fishermen 

 affirm) of from twelve to fourteen linlias ( = 300-400 fathoms), living habitually near the 

 bottom, in company with the Cherne (Polyprion cernium), Ccelho (Thyrsites prometheus 

 or Prometheus atlanticus), etc."; Thyrsites pivmetheus, which "lives habitually at the 

 bottom, and is taken at most seasons in a depth of from 100 to 300 or 400 fathoms"; 

 Scorpsena dactyloptera, from 250 to 400 fathoms. Especially instructive is Lowe's 

 account of the capture and occurrence of Polyprion cernium ; he says : — 



" The Sherny in Madeira is only captured by the hook ; and though shoals of small 

 fishes, weighing from five to twenty pounds, and called Chernotta, are said to be often 

 taken near the surface, in the neighbourhood of floating wreck or logs of wood, the 

 proper habitat of the full-sized fish, weighing from thirty to one hundred pounds, is 

 from one to two or three leagues from shore, and at the enormous depth of from twelve 

 to fifteen or sixteen linhas, or from three hundred to four hundred fathoms. With a 

 strong line^ of this length, to the bottom of which is tied a stone (called the ' pendula') 

 of three or four pounds' weight, and having attached immediately above the stone, at 

 intervals of eighteen inches, from twelve to fifteen strong hooks, baited with pieces of 

 Cavallo [Mackerel] or Chicharro [Madeiran' Horse-Mackerel], I have been frequently 

 assisting at their capture. Coming up from these enormous depths, the fish becomes so 

 distended with gas, expanding upon the removal of the vast pressure below, that it rises 

 to the surface, not indeed entirely dead, but wholly powerless, and in a sort of rigid 

 cataleptic spasm ; the stomach is usually inverted, and protruded into the mouth ; and 

 thu eyes in general are forced so completely from their sockets, sticking out often like 

 two horns, that ' eyes like a Cherne ' is a common phrase amongst the fishermen for a 

 prominent-eyed person. Sometimes, from the same cause, it rises faster as it aj^proaches 

 the surface than the line can be hauled in, shooting quite out of the water at some 

 distance from the boat upon its first emergence, like a cork or bladder, from the 

 lightness caused by its great distension. The usual size of these was from two and a 

 half to three and a half feet long, weighing from twenty-five to forty or fifty pounds." 



The discovery that some fishes live, at an early period of their existence, at or near 

 the surface, and in the course of their growth retire into the depths of the ocean, is due 

 to Lowe. 



The study of the fishes of Madeira was continued by Mr. J. Y. Johnson, who, 

 between the years 1862 and 1866, made some of the most interesting additions to 

 ichthyology; he discovered important bathybial types, such as Chiasmodus, Melano- 

 cetus, Halosaurus, Synaphohranchus, the Saccopharynx of Mitchell, and others, but 

 he treated them like any other rare surface-fishes, without taking note of their pertinence 

 to a distinct fauna. 



Each boat is generally furnished with two such lines, each worked by a single fisherman, who is, however, 

 assisted by others in the labour of hauling in the line, which takes from twenty to thirty minutes. 



