IN THE DARK OCEAN.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 2263, 8 May 1891, Page 5

IN THE DARK OCEAN.

The!; queerest „tliipg about deep-sea creatures i^thei^arrangementsifor/vißion. Tiah; that j^Vjeia.t.yery great depthsi have ieithejr, .no, .eygs^^-ajljlj^ori! euormously bigjflnes, *, In.djep i^ B 4;^re ) are i ,two ; wiaysFyoui may get on in these gloomy abysseßrr-l by. ; dell.cate^itcu^Tprgaris,,;- -prj/by//sightj that coljectfj jthe, fe>y (; ray? ; pf liKht^ufetoi ph.Oßphor i escsence fi or c /^ther : accidental j so'MQes f]t) ',Now. v .aß[ we,;go down in the 1 wafer, we find (/ at,,ea9h, depth that, the .effects ,pro<^ucedj upon the ,eyes of; fis h iMe steadily. .prOjgfjßSsivjß in one .direction ■orthe other. Species that live, at a ,80 the eye already ,8; gppd , deal; , bigger, than „ t heir nearest jjepre^enjati^es: that live, at or • near , the^ Bwface. Down to . theudeptb; of 200s 'fathpms^wberej^ayiight^iaappears, • the *yes t ,get r constantly rpi^ger and, bigger. Beyond ihas depth smail-eyed forms , set ip, with^ long feelers developed; tosuppjlenient the eyes. Sight,*; in \ fact, is • here beginning^ atrqpby. Jn- the greatest; abysses tthejfißh T are mqsfcly blind,' feeling their w^y, about entirely by their sensi;tiye bodies, jalone over ,the: naked surfaoe of the r,o,cfc bpttom. . Some of them have still external relics, of' ifunctionless eyes ; in otheEs^the oldest and confirmed ibysmalrspecie^ithe eypi ljaM ialtogether dieappeated externally^ though , its last representative ,'niay; r still be recognised, enibed'deci deepen fch'ejt f is3 f ues Qfjtne head. But many deep-sea fish have ; a curious system of hollows in, the along, a line; on th J e!^o^y.,wWcfe mucus o r r • ahd'tnis' sliine renvetppes, them completely, as in ac^sbeet ;ot ;jelly. Strange to say, it is phosphorescent. Moreover, many t qther ;( deep^sea^sßecies have two sets of organs fctirieoL lii- .tKeir Bkin, consisting of.^ound, -shiningj |Opalescent bodies, very closely, resembling oval, and aYe placed on the head not ; far them are aDundantly, .. supplied, n with nerves, "and to o j3p rf organs the production/ and nerhaps' alsb.fqri ££c perception, or pnosphorescent "gft<f- x , „-Wj 80, we may suppose that each, sucnrfish goes abqut like rr a f string, ,<|t 'gjo^yprrns, the dark, , somewhat, atter.the lU'mihbui'r»^t''' J Dr? !> Gunther suggests that 'in cases , the-, T p'hpspnorescence may be produced in , a i sort; r i^ii>ii\ 3<>ii --jv/jjov evauou ..• iron 1 mil of back, chamber "or tne organ, T and fioliceman flashes his.^pu.llsj-eye-on .^y? -suspected p^Min^leJb^^iemises of his beat. On the, subfect of these curious -Teyaja he^flaat'^ofdv.) fiAU.thathWAcan, d(hat3 present jfe <to«rfic'6gniseJ their- exist-' eiice ambrig^manj d'e-ep-sSk fi^h; r ina°W <J6ntiMe 0( tnm ' J i\Mf*tilßffi Ci HaV^'

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