1078 Marvels of the Universe 
SOME REMARKABLE INFANT FISHES 
BY, Wis (PS PY. CRAH IRS VHEZ.S. 
Some of the most striking, and at the same time the most puzzling, facts which the study of animal 
life presents are furnished by young animals ; and by way of illustrating this point, it would be 
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YOUNG STALK-EYE. 
Its eyes are mounted on long, flexible and retractile stalks, 
much like the eyes of a snail. 
difficult to find two more remarkable. instances 
than those furnished by the infant Ribbon-fish 
and Stalk-eye, whose portraits accompany these 
lines. 
The adult Ribbon-fish, or Deal-fish, which 
is sometimes cast up on the coasts of Scot- 
land, it should be remembered, is excessively 
elongated, and flattened from side to side, 
while the fins are its least conspicuous feature. 
Between this and the larval stage it would be 
difficult to find a stronger contrast, either in 
the matter of the form of the body, or in the 
development of the fins! Nothing is certainly 
known of the life-history of the young Ribbon- 
fish, but we may safely assume that it is spent 
in the ocean abysses, where the only semblance 
of light is that of the pale, thin rays emitted by 
the bodies of the inhabitants of these regions of 
eternal night. 
In these awful depths there are no disturbing 
currents, and hence the possibility of long, 
thread-like fin rays such as distinguish the 
young Ribbon-fish. But what purpose do they 
serve ? I hear my readers ask. Judging from 
what obtains among other, and adult, fishes of 
these regions, they serve as organs of touch, and 
the curious arrow-head tabs of skin which run 
up these rays probably give increased sensi- 
tiveness, either to touch or temperature. In 
the deep sea Bathypterois some of the rays, or 
supporting rods, of the breast-fins have been 
produced into long, delicate, bony threads 
covered with a very sensitive skin, and these are 
moved about—up, down, forwards, sideways, 
backwards—as the fish moves slowly about, 
seeking at once both food and direction. They 
remind us of the way the blind man guides 
himself by the tapping of his stick. But we 
have yet to discover whether the young Ribbon-fish is luminous and what are its haunts in later 
life. There are several species of Ribbon-fish, it may be remarked, and all alike have so far evaded 
our investigations, but all seem to haunt the deep sea. In the typical Ribbon-fish (Regalecus 
gladius), which may attain a length of twelve feet or more, the foremost rays of the back-fin, 
and those of the belly-fin—answering to the hind-legs—are excessively lengthened, though not 
