CHAP. IX.] 



THE DEEP-SEA FAUNA. 



4 (J 5 



Mexico. The abyssal mollusca are by no means de- 

 void of colour, though, as a rule, they are paler than 

 those from shallow water. Dacrydium vltream — 

 a curious little mytiloid shell-fish which makes and 

 inhabits a delicate flask-shaped tube of foraminifera, 



Fig. 78. — Phuronectia lucida, .Tfffreys Twice the natural size, a, from the Eastern Atlantic ■ 

 b, from the Gulf of Mexico. 



sponge spicules, coccoliths, and other foreign bodies, 

 cemented together by organic matter and lined by a 

 delicate membrane — is of a fine reddish brown colour 

 dashed with green, from 2,435 fathoms; and the 



Fig. 79. —Pecten hoskynsi, Forbes. Twire the natural size. 



animals of one or two species of Lima from extreme 

 depths are of the usual vivid orange scarlet. Neither 

 are the abyssal mollusca universally destitute of eyes. 

 A new species of Pleurotoma from 2,090 fathoms had 

 a pair of well-developed eyes on short footstalks ; and 



ii ii 



