CHAP. IX.] 



THE LEEP-SBA FAUNA. 



465 



Mexico. The abyssal moUusca are by no means de- 

 void of colour, thoTJgh, as a rule, they are paler than 

 those from, shallow water. Dacrydium vitreum — 

 a curious little mytiloid shell-fish which makes and 

 inhabits a delicate flask-shaped tube of foraminifera. 



Fitt. "B.—TlmroriKtia ludda, JfrrEEia. Twice the natural size, a, from the Eastern Atlantic ; 

 i, from the Gnlf of Mexico. 



sponge spicules, coccoliths, and other foreign bodies, 

 cemented together by organic matter and lined by a 

 delicate membrane — is of a fine reddish brown colour 

 dashed with green, from 2,435 fathoms; and the 



Fig, 79. —Pectm 



Forbes. Twice the natural size. 



animals of one or two species of Lima from extreme 

 depths are of the usual vivid orange scarlet. Neither 

 are the abyssal moUusca universally destitute of eyes. 

 A new species of Vleurotoma from 2,090 fathoms had 

 a pair of well-developed eyes on short footstalks ; and 



u n 



