REPORT ON THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. xxiii 



Bean, whose publications will be duly referred to in the descriptive part of this 

 Eeport. So far as the materials have been worked out, they show that fishes recorded 

 by the Challenger from great depths live in much shallower water in other parts of the 

 ocean, and that, on the other hand, many littoral forms descend to within the vertical 

 limits of the deep-sea fauna. The greatest depth from which the capture of fishes is 

 reported was 2900 fathoms, nearly the same as that stated by the Challenger. 



3. By the explorations of the Faeroe Channel, in H.M.SS. "Knight Errant" and 

 "Triton," in the years 1880 and 1882, our knowledge of the deep-sea fishes between 

 the British Islands and the Polar Sea was much advanced ; in fact, nothing was known 

 previously about this district. The trawl was used in from 200 to 640 fathoms.^ All 

 the species collected are embodied in the present Report ; they proved to be partly 

 identical with those collected by the Norwegian expedition, and partly closely allied to 

 types which were previously known from the Mediterranean. 



4. The deep-sea explorations undertaken by the French Government, and entrusted to 

 a commission under the presidency of Professor Milne-Edwards, began in the year 1880. 

 A vessel, " Le Travailleur," was employed for short periods in three consecutive years, 

 and replaced by the larger " Talisman" in 1883. The field of operations was in the first 

 years the Bay of Biscay, and extended to the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands, but 

 stiU more work was done in the "Talisman," in which the expedition made a series of 

 observations ofi" the coast of Morocco southward to Cape Verde Islands and the Sargasso 

 Sea, and westward to the Azores. From the general reports published it would appear 

 that the materials collected contain important contributions to our knowledge of deep-sea 

 fishes, but no authentic information has been published, with the exception of a supposed 

 new genus, Eurypliarynx. 



5. The Italian Government despatched a ship of the Royal Navy, the " Washington," 

 in three consecutive years (1881-3) for the exploration of the depths of the Mediterranean. 

 With regard to abyssal fishes, these expeditions were somewhat barren in results. 



' StafY Commander Tizard, R.N., and John Murray, Exploration of the Faaroe Channel, during the summer of 1880 

 in H.M.'s hired ship " Knight Errant," Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., 1882. • ^ 



