ANDHEW6 ICHTHYOLOGICAL NOTES. 33 



When we contemplate the vast scope of the branches of the natural 

 sciences, we cannot fail to meet most perplexing difficulties in the de- 

 termining of correct classification, the opportunity of practical investi- 

 gation not being afforded; for without that most essential aid, no 

 certainty can possibly be arrived at, especially true characteristics 

 depending upon habit, geographical range, seasons, depths, and pecu- 

 liarities of soundings, and on those natural causes which influence 

 forms and changes of animal and vegetable life. 



The subject of the Paper this evening relates to deep-water species, 

 the present observations being with reference to notes on some fish oc- 

 curring on the south-west coast of Ireland, in Dingle Bay, and off the 

 coast of Kerry. I have before brought to notice, at a meeting of this 

 Society, the discovery of the Sebastes Norvegicus, Norway haddock, on 

 that coast, a fish peculiar to deep water, and to those character of 

 soundings favourable to the haunts of the codfish. Hence, off the 

 Faroe Islands and the coast of Norway, it is well known to the fisher- 

 men as the frequenter of grounds the favourite locality of the codfish. 

 On the coast of England its record is not well authenticated ; but on 

 the coast of Scotland, and especially Zetland, it has been occasionally 

 obtained. It is truly a deep-water species, and the fine specimen ex- 

 hibited was taken on a long line, at a depth of sixty fathoms, the 

 soundings being coarse shingly gravel, abounding in Crustacea and 

 mollusca. 



Some most interesting Crustaceans and species of rare fish have 

 been met, which are confined to peculiar soundings in deep water; 

 yet I may say that at a depth beyond eighty fathoms much of interest 

 as to variety of forms ceases, and the dredge in soundings of 100 

 fathoms, and beyond that depth, rarely brings up but remnants belong- 

 ing to shallower soundings, or those forms of forantinifera and globi- 

 gerina which require microscopic manipulation in the determining 

 of their numerous forms. 



It is singular, however, the extreme depths that minute Crustacea, 

 Echinoderms, sponges, and corals are brought up ; therefore I may say 

 that when we proceed further than a depth of eighty fathoms the inte- 

 rest, so far as the ichthyologist is concerned, to a great extent, closes. 

 Wherever Crustacea and mollusca abound there the fish congregate, yet 

 those depths are generally most prolific between the soundings of thirty 

 to eighty fathoms; and again, wherever fish most congregate their 

 enemies invariably frequent. Dogfish and Sharks are numerous and 

 troublesome to the long lines of the .fishermen. The large spotted dog- 

 fish (Scyllium catulus), the common tope (Galeus canis), the smooth 

 hound (Mustelus vulgaris), and the black-mouthed dogfish {Pristiurus 

 melanostomus), I have frequently met. The picked dogfish (Acantliias 

 vulgaris) are numerous in deep water as well as in shoal water when 

 running up the bays and inlets in pursuit of fry, especially of sprat and 

 the herring. The specimens exhibited of the young state, with the 

 vitelline sac attached, were taken in deep water off the Wild Bank in 



vol, vr. F 



