April i, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



187 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF FISHES. 



A GOOD illustration of the amount of change brought about 

 by deep-sea investigations in our ideas of the distribution of 

 the fishes is to be seen in the recent history of the Discoboli. A 

 short time ago it was supposed all the representatives of this 

 group — the Discoboles, disk-bearers, lump-fishes, sucking- 

 fishes, or sea-snails, as they are variously called — were re- 

 stVicted to the Atlantic and Pacific, in their northern parts, 

 and to the Arctic Ocean. This was previous to 1870. At 

 that date species were known of each of the families of the 

 group. From the Atlantic section there were two species of 

 the Cyclopteridse — Cyclopterus lumpus and Eumicrotremus 

 spinosus — and five species of the Liparidida; — Liparis mon- 

 tagui, L. liparis, L. tunicatus, Careproctus major, and C. 

 Eeinhavdi. And from the Pacific the list contained one species 

 of the Cycloptei idse, Eumicrotremus orbis, two species of the 

 LiparopsidiB, Cyclopterichthys ventricosus and Liparops stel- 

 leri, and five species of the Liparididae — Liparis mucosas, L. 

 calliodon, L. Agassizii, L. pulchellus, and Careproctus gela- 

 tinosus. 



Between 1870 and 1891 the additions from the Atlantic 

 VFere four species of the Liparididse — Careproctus raicropus, 

 Paraliparis bathybius, P. liparinus, P. membranaceus. In 

 this period the northern Pacific had yielded one species of 

 the same family, Pai-aliparis rosaceus.. But the more impor- 

 tant additions in this time were from the southern end of 

 the American contineat, whence came one species of the 

 Liparopsidse, Cyclopterichthys amissus, and three species of 

 Liparididse — Liparis antarctica, L. Steineni, and L. pallidus 

 (one or more of which may yet prove to be young of Care- 

 proctus). Previous to 1891 this was the state of our knowledge 

 of the Discoboles ; and the general ly accepted idea of their distri- 

 bution limited them to the far-north and to the far-south, and 

 displaced them in the tropics by other disk-bearers belongiug 

 to very distinct families, the Gobiidaj and the Gobiesocida;. 

 As such a number of the Discoboli were deep-sea forms, and 

 as the anatomy in general was that of types adapted to a 

 life far below the surface in low temperatures, there seemed 

 to be no reason for supposing them absent from great depths 

 cinder the torrid zone. These considerations induced me, in 

 monographing the group for this museum, to predict that 

 eventually the proper distribution would be found to extend 

 from the northern to the most southern localities on the sea 

 bottom (Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., XIV., No. 2). 



Since 1890 a new genus, Cyclopteroides, and new species 

 have been added to the number of Discoboles known from 

 the North Pacific. They, however, did not affect the distri- 

 bution previously determined. It remained for the United 

 States Fishery Commission steamer "Albatross," under 

 Commander Tanner, to supply what was needed to verify 

 the prediction. Among the fishes collected by this vessel 

 while dredging off the west coast of Central America, ih 

 charge of Professor Alexander Agassiz, I find Bepresentatives 

 of two species which place the sub-equatorial distribution be- 

 yond question. These specimens were secured within four 

 degrees of the equator, at depths of more than 1,700 fathoms, 

 in temperatures of about 36° F. They are figured and de- 

 scribed in the forthcoming report on the fishes of these ex- 

 plorations, under the names Careproctus longifilis and Para- 

 liparis flmbriatus. By their capture the Artarctie are con- 

 nected with the Arctic localities, and the range of the 

 Discoboli is proved to be one of the most extensive among 

 the fishes, though the affinities and habits of those we now 

 know are such as indicate that the present list of the species 

 lacks much of being complete. 



But the modifications of our ideas by deep-sea exploration, 

 as will be shown in a later writing, are not confined to a 

 particular group. Our conclusions respecting numbers of 

 the families with which we had supposed ourselves well ac- 

 quainted have been affected directly, through new species and 

 extended ranges, and indirectly, through peculiarities of ana- 

 tomical or other relationships that appear as evidences of the 

 existence of allied forms not yet known, and of yet to be 

 discovered centres of distribution serving as sources of re- 

 plenishment for the fisheries, retreats for recovery from de- 

 pletion, or as possible new grounds for our fishermen. 



S. Garmajst. 



Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., Mar. 7. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



A NEW "Jahrbuch der Chemie" is to be issued by the Ger- 

 man publisher, H. Bechhold, Frankfort. It will be edited by Pro- 

 fessor R. Meyer, who has secured the co-operation of many eminent 

 men of science. The intention is that the progress of pure and 

 applied clieniistry shall be recorded every year in a connected 

 series of articles. 



— Japan has no fewer than 700 earthquake-observing stations 

 scattered over the Empire, and the Tokio correspondent of the 

 London Times is of opinion that they are all needed. He points 

 out that not only are the Japanese shaken up by fully 500 earth- 

 quakes every year — some of them more or less destructive — but 

 at intervals there comes a great disaster, amounting, as in the 

 earthquake of Oct. 28, 1891, to a national calamity. Japanese 

 annals record twenty-nine such during the last 1,200 years. 



— The volcano of Kilauea is very active at present. The cavity 

 produced by the last breakdown has not filled up, but there is an 

 active lake two or three hundred feet below the general level of 

 the floor and a quarter of a mile in diameter. Rev. S. E. Bishop 

 of Honolulu says the whole plateau of Halemanman is steadily 

 rising. It is evidently being pushed up by lava working under- 

 neath and not built up by overflows. Professor W. D. Alexander, 

 in charge of the Trigonometrical Survey, writes that his assistant, 

 Mr. Dodge, will probably re-survey the crater during the coming 

 summer, for the jjurpose of comparing the present topography 

 with that delineated in Science, vol. is., p. 181, 1887. The Vol- 

 cano Company is constantly improving the facilities offered to 

 visitors for inspecting the crater. 



— It sometimes happens that peat bogs swell and burst, giving 

 out a stream of dark mud. Herr Klinge, as we learn from Nature, 

 has made a study of this rare phenomenon (Bof. Jahrb.),o{ which 

 he has found only nine instances in Europe between 1745 and 1883 

 (seven of these being in Ireland). Heavy rains generally occur 

 before the phenomenon, and detonations and earth vibrations pre- 

 cede and accompany it. The muddy stream which issues, of 

 various fluidity, rolls along lumps of peat, and moves now more 

 quickly, now more slowly. After the outbreak, the mud quickly 

 hardens, and the bog sinks at the place it appeared, forming a 

 funnel-shaped pool. The bogs considered by Herr Klinge have 

 been almost all on high ground, not in valleys. He rejects the 

 idea that the eff'ects are due to excessive absorption of water by 

 the bog. The peat layers, which often vary much in consistency, 

 have each a certain power of imbibition, and the water absorbed 

 does not exceed this limit. Excessive rain affects chiefly the upper 

 layer not yet turned into peat and the cover of live vegetation, 

 which jjets saturated like a sponge, after o'hich the water collects 

 in pools, and runs off in streams. The theory of gas explosions is 

 also rejected ; and the author considers the real cause to lie in land- 

 slips, collapses, etc., of ground under the bog, permitting water 

 or liquid mud to enter. This breaks up the bog mechanicallv, 

 mixes with it and fluidifies it, and an outburst at the surface is 

 the result. The limestone formations in Ireland, with their large 

 caverns and masses of water, are naturally subject to those col- 

 lapses, which, with the vibrations they induce, are more frequent 

 in wet years. The heavy rains preceding the bog eruptions are 

 thus to be regarded as only an indirect cause of these. 



