54 



SCIENCE, 



LVOL. VI., No. 128. 



from the shock of the long journey, but a number 

 appear to be active in their new home. 



In this connection it may be interesting to note 

 that the common east-coast soft clam, My a arenaria, 

 which was introduced on the Pacific coast several 

 years ago, has become thoroughly acclimated there, 

 and is now very abundant. 



WORK OF THE CHALLENGER EXPE- 

 DITION. — II. FROM A ZOOLOGICAL 

 STAND-POINT. 



After the investigation of the ph3'sical fea- 

 tures of the world of the sea, it was expected 

 and has proved that the greatest additions to 

 our knowledge would be made b}^ the expedi- 

 tion in the direction of biology. From the 

 summaries furnished b}^ the specialists engaged 

 on the various monographs, and printed at in- 

 tervals in the text of these volumes, a few facts 

 may be cited in the endeavor to give an ap- 

 proximate idea of the scope and character of 

 the results. 



The main purpose of the expedition, on the 

 biological side, was to investigate the marine 

 life of the sea, and incidental!}^ to examine the 

 life of certain isolated oceanic islands, — faunae 

 pregnant with meaning for the naturalist, 

 though scant}' in species or individuals. Both 

 objects were carried out in a manner satisfac- 

 tory to naturalists, and creditable to the officers 

 of the expedition. The air-breathing verte- 

 brates, of course, were little sought after, but 

 interesting observations are recorded on the 

 sea-elephant and fur-seal ; and the bones of 

 cetacea dredged from the sea-bottom were suffi- 

 ciently numerous and interesting to justify a 

 special report on them by Professor Turner. 

 The expedition seems to have needed a live 

 harpooner, for it got no porpoises during the 

 whole voyage, though many played about the 

 ship. The birds collected, though not ex- 

 tremely numerous, were of great interest, and 

 have been reported on by Dr. Sclater, the Mar- 

 quis of Tweeddale, Dr. Finsch, Count Salva- 

 dori, Messrs. Saunders, Salvin, and Garrod. 

 The death of the latter prevented the comple- 

 tion of his work on the anatomy of the petrels, 

 which was taken up by the late W. A. Forbes, 

 who made an exhaustive report on the subject, 

 showing that the order of Tubinares must be 

 divided, as proposed by Garrod, into two very 

 distinct families characterized by numerous 

 and important differences, — which indicate not 

 only a great antiquity for the whole group, but 

 a great amount of extinction among its past 

 members, in the process of which nearly all 



the intermediate or less specialized forms are 

 believed to have disappeared. Professor Cun- 

 ningham has reported on the marsupial mam- 

 mals ; Professor Parker, on the development 

 of the green turtle ; and Professor Turner, on 

 the human crania collected during the voyage. 

 The report on .the deep-sea fishes, by Dr. Giin- 

 ther, is still a desideratum, but will unquestion- 

 ably be of great interest. Some preliminary 

 notes appear in this volume. A great similarity 

 between the fish fauna of the Japan seas, the 

 West Indies and adjacent Atlantic Ocean, and 

 the Mediterranean, is clearly shown. At St. 

 Paul's Rocks a new species of Holocentrum 

 was found, but the fish fauna had a generally 

 Antillean character. A remarkable fish, Ba- 

 thypterois, was found on the coast of Brazil, 

 with rudimentary eyes, and part of the pectoral 

 fins modified to form extremely long tactile fil- 

 aments. Another, Ipnops, dredged in the 

 ocean at a depth of 1,900 fathoms, had the eyes 

 modified to such an extent as to resemble two 

 scale-like plates on the top of the much-flat- 

 tened muzzle. No image can be formed in 

 them, but they may serve for detecting minute 

 quantities of light. Still another, Echiostoma, 

 has eyes and formidable teeth, with long fila- 

 ments extending from the chin and pectorals. 

 A series of luminous globular bodies extends 

 along the lower part of the body, and others 

 of larger size are found on the head. The 

 bones and ligaments of the deep-sea fishes are 

 very soft, and the muscles loosely connected 

 with each other. This is partly due to the ex- 

 pansion which they undergo in being raised 

 quickly from regions where the water permeat- 

 ing all their bodies is under immense pressure ; 

 but the tissues must be loose to admit of such 

 permeation, or they would be crushed and 

 ruined under a weight which shivers solid 

 glass to powder. Many of them are blind ; 

 many of them have phosphorescent organs, or 

 secrete a phosphorescent slime ; others have 

 distensible stomachs and wide mouths, which 

 ingulf fishes much larger than themselves. 



Turning to the division of invertebrata, we 

 find ourselves more than embarrassed with 

 riches. The mollusks being in the hands of 

 Rev. Boog- Watson and Mr. E. A. Smith of 

 the British museum, who have so far sub- 

 mitted only preliminary notices, we learn 

 chiefly of some special rarities, such as the 

 paper-thin volute, Guivillea, from the depths 

 of the Southern Ocean, or the beautiful Pecten 

 Watsoni, of the section Amussium. Mr. Smith 

 reports, in harmony with the results of the 

 Blake expedition, that among the bivalves 

 dredged from a depth of over 2,000 fathoms 



