Recent bishery Research. 31 



laid in deep water. They were lifted after a time for repairs, 

 and were found to be covered with marine organisms. This 

 proved the fact that there was life in the depths of the ocean, 

 and in this connection he could not refrain from referring to 

 the magnificent work that was done by Sir W. Thompson, a 

 former professor of Queen's College, who carried out work on 

 the Challenger, the results of which had been given to the 

 world in many volumes. 



He was particularly anxious that they should grasp the fact 

 that deep-sea life was not the kind of life that was any use to 

 them. The lecturer then called attention to characteristics of 

 some of the curious looking creatures that they found in the 

 deep sea. He showed that some of these were provided with 

 luminous organs, as the water beneath 100 fathoms is com- 

 pletely dark, and he also pointed out that they were so formed 

 as to be able to exist under the great pressure to which they 

 were subjected so far beneath the surface. Those physical 

 conditions prevented fish living in the higher waters migrating 

 to the lower, and vice versa. Fish taken from those deep 

 waters practically exploded by being brought to the surface 

 and relieved of the pressure which they were formed to resist. 

 The ordinary fishtrman in the North Sea knew how to mini- 

 mise the effects of slight change of pressure. When they took 

 a cod out of even twenty fathoms of water, and wished to keep 

 it alive, they resorted to the precaution — at least they used to 

 — of running a needle into the bladder and letting out some of 

 the gas or air, so that the bulk of the fish might diminish 

 rapidly and accommodate its size to the lesser pressure of sur- 

 face water. Another preventative from the passage of fish from 

 higher to lower waters, and lower to higher, was the differ- 

 ence in temperature. They had found that the temperature 

 in those deep waters was very little above freezing point. 



After alluding to figures which showed a decline in some of 

 our fisheries, especially those for turbot and soles, the lecturer 

 said that fall in the fisheries took place in spite of the fact that 

 there was an enormous increase of fishing apparatus at work. 



