248 DEEP-SEA FISHES OF INDIAN OCEAN 



curious visitors is shown by the fact that seven small 

 Scopeli, each about ij inches long, were taken from the 

 stomach of a specimen whose total length was less 

 than 6 inches ; and this specimen was a female full 

 of roe, the capacity of whose stomach was then at a 

 minimum. 



We still know far too little about the modes of 

 reproduction and nursery arrangements of the fishes 

 of the nether world. In the Investigator we have 

 dredged large eggs of some unknown species of ray, 

 and these are in all respects like the ''mermaids' purses " 

 of the shores of northern seas ; so that we may perhaps 

 infer that the rays of the deep sea, like those of the 

 shallows, deposit their eggs on the bottom or on some 

 fixed object ; but we have never discovered the develop- 

 ing eggs or the fry of any deep-sea Teleostean, though 

 of many species we have dredged females in roe. On 

 three different occasions, however, we have encountered 

 viviparous Teleosteans, the viviparous species being Sacco- 

 gaster macitlata (Fig. 47), from 163-250 fathoms; Dipla- 

 canthoponia rivers-andersoni, from 947 fathoms ; and 

 Hephthocara simum, from 606-937 fathoms, all belonging 

 to the one family of OphidiidcB, In these three species 

 the ovaries, which are very large, are enveloped in a 

 tough capsule, and only those eggs which lie immediately 

 beneath the capsule seem to give rise to embryos ; and 

 from the fact that no channels capable of carrying nutri- 

 ment from the mother to the unborn young exist. 



