26 Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
extend further along the South Coast. The Cape fishermen have a great 
belief in the effect of the prevailing winds (S.E. and N.W.) on the 
relative abundance and occurrences of fish, and it has been stated that in 
the marked absence of south-easters in the summer time strange fish are 
to be found in False Bay and are often cast up dead on the beach. I have 
examined some of these fish, and they proved to belong to species usually 
found in the warm waters of the East Coast. A fisherman of many years' 
experience, on seeing the Batistes, stated that he had seen a similar fish cast 
up on the beach of False Bay. 
The fact thus demonstraned that such tropical fish of the East Coast live 
and thrive for a time in Cape waters would seem to indicate the possibility 
of their being able to pass the barrier of the Cape and reach the warm 
waters on the western side of the continent. In these waters, similar in 
character to those in which they normally live and propagate, they would 
probably survive and increase, so that we could have identical species on the 
east and west side of the continent, with an apparent absence of such 
species in the intervening parts of the ocean. 
If some tropical fish can thus run the gauntlet of the colder waters of the 
Cape and ultimately reach waters in which they can thrive and propagate, it 
is reasonable to suppose that fish of the northern hemisphere may be able 
in the same way to pass, in limited numbers and on specially favourable 
occasions, through warm equatorial waters to the southern hemisphere and 
vice versa. The supposed absence of bi-polar species in the equatorial 
regions may be only apparent, and they may at special times and on special 
occasions occur in these regions. The same, of course, holds good for other 
forms of marine life, more especially, perhaps, of planktonic forms, which 
may be carried by exceptional currents in limited numbers from their usual 
haunts, through regions not suited to their increase, to conditions of life not 
different from their normal environment. Alleged cases of strict bi-polarity 
in marine animals may, therefore, be more apparent than real. 
