CHAP. IX.] 



THE DEEP-SEA FAUNA. 



4G5 



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 vltreum 

 a curious little mytiloid shell-fish which makes and 

 inhabits a delicate flask-shaped tube of foraminifera, 



F IG . 7S.rJF.itroncctin ludda, JEFFREYS. Twice the natural si/e. , from thr Kastern Atlantic ; 

 1>, 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 



F IG 73. -Pecten hoskijHsi, FORBES. Twice the natural sixe. 



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 



