ZOOLOGY. 489 
that the supposed fish was only a “fish story,” there can be no 
doubt whatever. Very lately, Mr. Hemphill has forwarded to the 
California Academy of Sciences some dry Virgularias (?) from 
San Diego, California. Although the genus cannot be deter- 
mined without alcoholic specimens, yet the axes of these spec- 
imens, which are about a foot long, present no differences whatever 
except in size, from the Burrard’s Inlet specimens, of which the 
Academy possesses a large series. Mr. Hemphill adds in a letter 
to Mr. Stearns, to whom I am indebted for this information, that 
these animals, though not attached to anything, are quite hard to 
pull out of the mud, and that they descend into it at low water, 
protruding the upper portion of the polypidom only at high water. 
It is manifestly improbable that the Burrard’s Inlet species, which 
attains an axial length of six feet, can thus conceal itself, and this 
would confirm the reports which have been circulated here, that it 
is found only in deep water.— W. H. D 
ABSENCE or Eyes in Crustacea.—In connection with the sub- 
ject of cave life and the probable derivation of the blind erayfish 
of Mammoth cave from ancestors able to see, we would refer our 
readers to the following remarks of Prof. Wyville Thomson in 
“Nature,” May 15, on Deidamia pipese von Suhm, dredged in 
lat. 21° 38’ N., long. 44° 39’ W. in 1900 fathoms. It is allied 
to Astacus, hit differs from all tha! typical decapods in the total 
absence of eye-stalks and eyes. 
: absence of eyes in many deep-sea animals and their full 
Te ean in others is very remarkable. I have mentioned 
(“The Depths of the Sea,” p. 176)., the case of one of the stalk- 
eyed crustaceans Ethusu granulata, in which well-developed eyes 
are present in examples from shallow water. In deeper water, 
Pie delicacy. Ts it pos ssible that in certain cases, as oe in 
light cape the power of vision becomes more acute, Pale at 
length t eye becomes susceptible of the stimulus of the fainter 
ht of ibatan The absence of eyes is not unknown 
