228 OF DEEP-SEA FISHES IN GENERAL 



angler it recalls hours of serene communion with Nature, 

 and days of happy release from all the cares of a weary 

 world ; to the Christian it brings up such sacred tradi- 

 tions as the feeding of the multitude in the wilderness, 

 the payment of the tribute money at Capernaum, the 

 miraculous draught in the Lake of Gennesaret, and 

 the call of those humble toilers who were chosen to 

 be the first hearers of the word ; while the mind of a 

 more curious turn may revert to the fish that foretold 

 the doom of the too-fortunate Polycrates. Again, to 

 those whose thoughts take a practical bent, it speaks 

 of several important industries ; and to those who do 

 not forget the primeval connection between fishermen 

 and sailor-men, it tells, even as it did in the days of 

 the Virgin Queen, of '*the increase of the navigation 

 of England, of which, both for wealth and safety, 

 enough cannot be said." 



According to Dr Gunther, before the voyage of the 

 Challenger (187 2- 1876), scarcely thirty species of deep- 

 sea fishes were known. At the present day, if we also 

 include those oceanic fishes which ordinarily live some 

 distance below the surface, we have become acquainted 

 with more than a thousand species, most of which 

 have been discovered by H.M.S. Challenger, by the 

 United States survey-ships Albatross and Blake and 

 by other vessels of the United States Fish Commission, 

 by the French ships Travailleur, Talisman, and 



