PHOSPHORESCENT PRAWNS 133 



which had certainly come from the bottom. This is 

 a fact of special interest, as it shows how, even in 

 places far remote from continents and rivers, land- 

 derived vegetable matter suitable for the support of 

 animal life, may find its way into the abysses of the 

 sea. 



The animals dredged up from these great depths 

 were, for the most part, sponges and starfishes and 

 other Echinoderms ; but in the haul in 1997 fathoms 

 we also got a long-stalked sea-squirt {Culeolus), and 

 a shrimp i^Pontophilus abyssi) with degenerate eyes, 

 which had previously been known only from the depths 

 of the North Atlantic; and among the stuff from 1644 

 fathoms were specimens of the widely-ranging deep- 

 sea hermit-crab [Parapagtcrtis pilosimanus), which lives 

 in a house formed by a colony of gristly sea-anemones. 



Our third haul, in 561 fathoms, to the west of the 

 Coco Channel, was of special interest, as it threw some 

 light on a dark subject ; namely, the means by which 

 certain deep-sea animals are able to illuminate the 

 gloomy depths in which they live. Everyone, of 

 course, knows that many marine animals can give out 

 flashes of light, and indeed it seems more than prob- 

 able that the majority of the inhabitants of the sea 

 are more or less luminous. Of those that are obviously 

 brilliant, the animals that contribute to the nocturnal 

 phosphorescence of the sea are the most popularly 

 known ; but most visitors to the seaside have come 



