1 76 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [chap, iv. 



This crab, from its long spiny legs and light body, 

 very often comes up entangled on the part of the rope 

 which had been passing over the ground. Another 

 handsome new species, Amathia carpenteri, Nor- 

 man (Fig. 35), was common in the sandy chalk- 

 mud of the ' Holtenia ground.' The genus had 

 previously been familiar as a Mediterranean form. 



I quote from a preliminary notice of the Crus- 

 tacea by the Rev. A, Merle Norman : " Mhma 

 granulata (sp. n.), the same species as that found 

 otf Valentia, but exhibiting a most extraordinary 

 modification of structure. The examples taken at 

 110 — 370 fathoms in the more southern habitat 

 have the carapace furnished in front with a spi- 

 nose rostrum of considerable length. The animal 

 is apparently blind, but has two remarkable spiny 

 eye-stalks, with a smooth rounded termination 

 where the eye itself is ordinarily situated. In the 

 specimens however from the north, which live in 

 542 and 705 fathoms, the eye-stalks are no longer 

 moveable. They have become firmly fixed in their 

 sockets, and their character is quite changed. They 

 are of much larger size, approach nearer to each 

 other at their base, and instead of being rounded at 

 their apices they terminate in a strong rostrate 

 point. No longer used as eyes, they now assume the 

 functions of a rostrum ; while the true rostrum so 

 conspicuous in the southern specimens has, marvellous 

 to state, become absorbed. Had there been only a 

 single example of this form procured, we should at 

 once have concluded that we had found a monstrosity, 

 but there is no room for such an hypothesis by which 

 to escape from this most strange instance of modifi- 



