1885.] Zoology. 83 
was dredged by the Talisman, under the tropics, at the depth of 
goo and 1000 meters. This species, distinct from all others yet 
known, has been named Lithodes tropicalis. There also occurred 
several crustacea of the group Galathez, whose eyes are trans- 
formed into spines. 
The sponges are extremely common at the surface of the bed 
of this part of the ocean. Most of them, as well known, have a 
silicious skeleton. 
everal species of the beautiful Rosella and of Holtenia were 
found living in profusion. Their long hairs of white silex are 
buried in the mud, and the sponges, with a form like a rounded 
vase and a narrow orifice, project above the mud. They were 
especially numerous between 900 and 1 200 meters, and at certain 
points they seem to form veritable beds. The Aphrocallistes, 
whose solid framework, composed of regular cells, affects the 
most elegant forms, and gives the appearance of a honeycomb, 
form extensive banks ; they were found ordinarily associated with 
and attached to, branching corals of the genera Lophohelia and 
Amphihelia. 
The soft sea-urchins, such as the Calveria, become more num- 
erous, and at 1000 meters they probably live crowded together 
like the Echini of our shores. Some Holothurians, of the genus 
polyps, we find in these new conditions a different population. 
Off Cape Ghir and Cape Noun,"under the 30th parallel, at 120 
miles from the shore, the Talisman explored, for several days, a 
very regular bank, whose depths only varied between the narrow 
limits of 2075 to 2300 meters. It was on this same bank that, 
on the 2d of August, 1882, the Travailleur brought up in its nets 
the singular fish described by M. Vaillant under the name of ` 
Eurypharynx pelecanoides, associated with a great number of new 
or rare species. This year two specimens of Eurypharynx have 
been captured, one at 1050 meters and the other at 1400 meters, 
on the bottom of the reddish ooze west of Morocco. Similar 
banks, but less rich, had been already explored by the Zaisman 
on the Morocco coast, off Rabat, between Cape Blanc, northerly, 
and Cape Cantin, a little before the arrival of the Talisman at 
Mogador. These were found again under the 24th parallel ; also 
off the Arguin bank. At this depth, the fishes were represented 
by some very rare species, such as the Melanocetus johnsoni, 
which had been as yet known only by a single example found 
floating on the water by fishermen near Madeira. With its enor- 
mous mouth it could swallow a fish considerably larger than its own 
body, and its prey would lodge in a sac which hangs below its 
abdomen, The first ray of the dorsal fin is developed into a true 
