'T02 



SEA AND LAND 



geologic ages this selection of especially prepared groups 

 for the singular stations or habits of the ocean depths has 

 been going on, with the result that those dark and pressure- 

 burthcned regions are now tenanted by many eminently 

 peculiar animals, by species which ever surprise the student 

 who is accustomed to the forms which dwell only near the 

 shores. 



One of the most strikino; features connected with the 



animals of the deep 

 seas, is the frequency 

 with which we find 

 there living species 

 which remind us of 

 kinds which in former 

 geologic periods 

 dwelt in the coastal 

 districts of the 

 oceans. It seems 

 that many of these 



A fish of singular form from the open sea, and possibly inhabiting a U C 1 6 U t CreatUreS 

 the greater depths. 



when they no longer 

 could hold their own against the more highly organized and 

 developed animals which inhabited the favored stations next 

 the shores, shrunk away into the deep water, and in that 

 undesired part of the world found an asylum, where, amid 

 the changeless environment, they have dwelt for ages, unal- 

 tered. Thus the vast profounds of the deep have become a 

 sort of almshouse, whereunto anticjuated species have retired 

 before the overwhelming pressure which the newer and 

 higher life ever imposes. From the results of the relatively 

 trifling explorations which have, as yet, been made, there 



Sternoptyx Diaphana 



