296 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathyhial Fishes 



and Gastropod and Lamellibranch Mollusks ; besides some 

 curious green-coloured Fucus-\[ke ova (?) adherent to the last. 



By the Laccadive Sea is meant the basin which intervenes 

 between the west coast of India and the parallel series of 

 ridges whose peaks form the bases of the shoals and atolls of 

 the Laccadive Archipelago. 



It is a long narrow basin, open to tlie south and closing in 

 gradually to the north, its boundary here being tlie Angrias 

 Bank, in lat. 16° 30' N. It slopes steeply from east to west, 

 its greatest depths, which are not much over 1100 fathoms, 

 being close to the Laccadive Islands, which individually rise 

 abruptly from the bottom. The nature of the bottom on the 

 Indian side is, as would be expected, determined by detritus 

 from the land ; but on the Laccadive side the bottom consists 

 almost entirely of coral-mud, with a variable proportion — from 

 2 to 12 per cent. — of Foraminifera shells. 



§ 2. Notes on the Fishes^ with Descriptions of new Species. 



The bathybial fishes collected in the Laccadive Sea are 

 remarkable for their large size. 



At twenty stations in the Bay of Bengal and neighbouring 

 waters the ' Investigator ' has taken deep-sea fishes ; and on 

 contrasting them with these from the Laccadive Sea, the 

 superior bulk of the latter is strikingly manifest. Among 

 the Macriiri, comparing mature females, the two specimens 

 from the Laccadive Sea measure respectively 22 and 19^ 

 inches, and weigh respectively 1*5 and '65 lb. ; while the 

 two largest specimens from the Bay of Bengal measure 

 respectively Mj and 11 inches, and weigh respectively '23 

 and "lo lb. The Ophidiids from the Laccadive Sea are 

 also larger and heavier. Again, the longest deep-sea Phy- 

 sostorae taken in the Bay of Bengal measures but 16 inches, 

 against the 21 inches of the longest Physostome from the 

 Laccadive Sea ; while the average length of the Bay of 

 Bengal specimens of this suborder is under 9 inches, against 

 an average length of nearly 14 inches of the Laccadive Sea 

 specimens. 



The occurrence in the deep waters of the Arabian Sea of 

 forms hitlicrto known from tlie depths on the one Iiand of the 

 Mid-Atlantic, and on the otlier hand of the Nortli Pacific, is 

 a further illustration of the wideness of distribution of true 

 bathybial fishes. 



The following: is the list of the fishes : — 



