432 



Dr. J. Murray. 



The following are tlie eleven species : — CMmcera monstrosa, Galeus 

 canis, Acanthias vulgaris, Acanthias JBlainvilli, Rhina squatina, Zeus 

 faber, Lophius piscatorius, Gentriscus scolopax, Engraulis encrasicholus, 

 Glupea spratfus, Conger vulgaris. 



The genus by which, the family Berycida3 is represented in the 

 southern temperate zone (Trachichthys) is much more nearly allied to 

 the northern than to the tropical genera. " As in the northern tem- 

 perate zone, so in the southern .... the variety of forms is 

 much less than between the tropics. This is especially apparent on 

 comparing the number of species constituting a genus. In this zone, 

 genera composed of more than ten species are the exception, the 

 majority having only from one to five." .... " Poly prion is 

 one of those extraordinary instances in which a very specialised form 

 occurs at almost opposite points of the globe, without having left a 

 trace of its previous existence in, or of its passage through, the 

 intermediate space." 



Speaking of the shore-fishes of the Antarctic Ocean, Giinther says : 

 " The general character of the fauna of Magelhaen's Straits and 

 Kerguelen's Land is extremely similar to that of Iceland and Green- 

 land. As in the Arctic fauna, Chondropterygians are scarce, and 

 represented by Acanthias vulgaris and species of Raja .... As 

 to Acanthopterygians, Cataphracti, and Scorpaenida? are represented 

 as in the Arctic fauna, two of the genera (Sebastes and Agonus) 

 being identical. The Cottidaa are replaced by six genera of Tra- 

 chinidae, remarkably similar in form to Arctic types . . . 

 Gadoid fishes reappear, but are less developed; as usual they are 

 accompanied by Myxine. The reappearance of so specialised a genus as 

 Ly codes is most remarkable."* 



These statements with reference to shore-fishes might, with some 

 modifications, be repeated concerning the distribution and character 

 of all classes of marine invertebrates in high northern and high 

 southern latitudes. f The Challenger " researches show that nearly 



* Giinther, ' Study of Fishes,' pp. 282—290. Edinburgh. 1880. 



f Ortrnann, speaking of the Decapod Crustacea, says : " Nach dem Stande 

 unserer jetzigen ITenntmss ist Jceine einzige bipolare Art bekannt" (Ortmann, 

 ' Zoologische Jahrbiicher,' Abth. f. Syst., &c, Bd. ix, p. 585, 1896). Henderson, 

 in his report on the " Challenger" Anoinura, in describing Lithodes murrayi from 

 the Kerguelen region, says it " is apparently most closely allied to Lithodes maia" 

 (from the North Atlantic), " but the latter species is of large size, and the spines 

 on the carapace are more numerous and more uniformly equal in size" (Hender- 

 son, 'Zool. Chall. Exp.,' pt. 69, p. 44). Henderson writes me that the?e very slight 

 differences were the only ones he could detect, and it seems evident that had the 

 two specimens been taken from the same haul of the trawl, or from the same 

 locality, they would never have been erected into two distinct species. Henderson 

 writes me further that throughout the entire range of Crustacea there is no better 

 illustration of bipolarity than that furnished by the Lithodidae. For instances of 



