THE DEEP SEA AND ITS CONTENTS. 347 



" Thus, off the coast of New South Wales we dredged from 400 

 " fathoms a large sea-urchin which had its stomach full of pieces 

 " of a sea-grass (Zostera) derived from the coast above. Again, 

 "we dredged from between the New Hebrides and AustraUa, 

 "from 1400 fathoms, a piece of wood and half a dozen examples 

 " of a large palm-fruit as large as an orange. In one of these fruits, 

 " which had hard woody external coats, the albumen of the fruit 

 " was still preserved, perfectly fresh in appearance, and white, 

 " like that of a ripe cocoa-nut. The hollows of the fruits were 

 " occupied by two molluscs ; the husks and albumen were bored by 

 " a teredo-like mollusc ; and the fibres of the husks had among 

 "them small nematoid worms. — p. 583. 



Branches of trees, also, and leaves of shrubs, in a water-logged 

 condition, were occasionally brought up in the dredge from great 

 depths ; and their occurrence, as Mr. Moseley remarks, is of im- 

 portance, not only to the naturalist, as showing that deep-sea 

 animals may draw large supplies of food from such sources, but 

 also to the geologist, as indicating the manner in which specimens 

 of land vegetation may have been imbedded in deposits formed 

 at great depths. 



The entire absence of sunlight on the deep-sea bottom seems 

 to have the same effect as the darkness of caves, in reducing to a 

 rudimentary condition the eyes of such of their inhabitants as fish 

 and Crustacea, which ordinarily enjoy visual power ; and many of 

 these are provided with enormously long and delicate feelers or 

 hairs, in order that they may feel their way about with these, just 

 as a blind man does with his stick. But other deep-sea animals 

 have enormously large eyes, enabling them to make the best of 

 the little light there is in the depths, which is probably derived (as 

 suggested in the report of the Poraipine dredgings) from the 

 phosphorescence emitted by many deep-sea animals, especially a 

 certain kind of zoophytes. " It seems certain," says Mr. Moseley, 

 " that the deep sea must be lighted here and there by greater or 

 " smaller patches of luminous alcyonarians, with wide intervals, 

 " probably, of total darkness intervening ; and very possibly the 

 " animals with eyes congregate round these sources of light." It 

 is remarkable that with such poverty of light there should be such 

 richness of colour among deep-sea animals. Although most deep- 



