MONSTRUM HORRENDUM, ETC. 237 



eyes are not merely atrophied, but are entirely con- 

 cealed beneath the skin and scales, so that this species, 

 which from its enormous head and slender tail we can 

 feel sure lives on the bottom in perpetual darkness, 

 is blind beyond redemption : the muciferous channels of 

 its head, whose function may probably be connected 

 with the sense of touch, and possibly with that of hearing 

 also, are, however, very greatly developed, and the 

 remarkably long inner ray of the ventral fin is most 

 likely a special feeler. Tauredophidium is further com- 

 pensated for its helplessness in the matter of sight 

 by having the bones of its gill-cover armed with 

 enormous spines which must make the animal a for- 

 midable object to attack. 



Good Indian examples of active deep-sea fishes 

 which, though they may ordinarily live out of reach 

 of the sun, do not live in absolute darkness, are the 

 toothless perch Brephostoma carpenteri, a curious 

 Berycoid {Bathyclupea hoskyiiii)y and the members of 

 the typical abyssal families MacruridcE and ALepo- 

 cephalidcB, in all of which the eyes are of superlative 

 size. The best example of all is Leptoderma afjinis (Fig. 

 35), an Alepocephaloid dredged in 753 fathoms off the 

 Kistna coast, whose eyes are like the goggles of a 

 diver's helmet. This curious creature seems to manu- 

 facture its own light, for though it is quite black and 

 has no special phosphorescent glands, yet its entire 

 skin is enveloped in a thick, opalescent epidermis, like 



