XV. 



SKETCHES OF THE CHARACTERISTIC DEEP-SEA TYPES. — FISHES.^ 



The collections of the earlier deep-sea expeditions consisted 

 almost exclusively of invertebrate animals, and it was not until 

 the publication of the " Challenger " results that any large num- 

 ber of deep-sea fishes became known. The first extensive con- 

 tribution to our knowledge of the vertebrate inhabitants of the 

 great depths of the sea was made by Dr. Gunther of the British 

 Museum, in 1878. He printed in the " Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History " a series of papers containing descriptions 

 of some species of fishes which had been obtained by the " Chal- 

 lenger." 



The deep-sea fishes, as a whole, although distinguished by 

 marked peculiarities, consist of types not wholly unfamiliar to the 

 ichthyologist. Many of the characteristic abyssal families have 

 representatives in the inshore faunae, less strongly speciahzed 

 perhaps than their allies in the abysses, but still structurally 

 the same. Others had in former years become known, from 

 dead individuals which floated to the surface or drifted ashore. 

 The latter have usually been designated as " pelagic forms," 

 and until the existence of a deep-sea fauna was revealed, the 

 problem of their origin was much less intelligible than it is now. 



Even now, the distinctions between the inhabitants of deep 

 water, those of the middle depths, and those of the surface 

 strata of mid-ocean, are not strongly defined. Such are the im- 

 perfections in the methods of trawling and dredging, that the 

 naturalist, when he has sorted out the fishes from his nets after 



^ I am indebted to Professor Goode East Coast of the United States by Goode 



and Dr. Bean for notes upon the Fishes, and Bean, based upon the collections of 



The figures are taken from a Memoir the " Blake " and of the U. S. Fish Com- 



preparing on the Deep-Sea Fishes of the mission. 



