DEEP-SEA FISHES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1672, 26 September 1887, Page 3

DEEP-SEA FISHES

During the past decada a. me extremely j remarkable fishes have been added to the I lists of thosa already known. Many of those are deep-Baa forms, intere ting and novel even to the Bpeolalißt Only a few years ago naturalists were almost unarij mona m the opinion that fishes oould not j live m the greater ancTabyaaal depths of I the ocean, and it seemed only neoe_s_ry to mention the enormous pressure that muat exist m deep water to show that thoy wer« right. Again the argument was brought up that animal life could not exist below a depth where the am's rays ceaß.d to peoetrate. These arguments have lost their force however, m the light of recent discovery, and it is found thbt the very darkest and deepest portions of the ocean bed are peopled with animal life of somkind. How, then, oan they withstand the pressure that powders glass In the instruments, hoists iron and copper, aud rends and tears ropea 1 A moat oasu .1 examination of one of the extreme deepsea fishes tells the story. Some, when taken from the water, actually fall to prieces ; and although of large eiza, the types of ocean oarnlvora, one and all, are adapted by a peculiar modification to their seemingly unnatural habitation. In short, theae dwellers of the deep aea are literally put together m the flimsiest nnnner. Their bones are c.mivemus, porous, and apparent'/ permeated with hole m every direction, bo much so that a pin thrust at random into the bone will pa.B into una of t> ccc natural pits, In thi. way, the framework of the fish ia enabled to withat.iid the enormous pressure. Water undoubtedly finds it way its way Into all theese crevices, and the preseuie ia equalised. Often the vertebrae are so loosely con eoted In lar^e fi-hes that they drop apart when touched, showing how perfectly they are adapted to a life where the pressure am unts to two or three ton... The distribution of theae fi dies m ir.t.reßtiiig. Some genra are found one at level, aay a mile, some at two miles, while othera seem to rise and fall, passing from one level to another. This ohange, however, must be made very slowly, to enable the fi.h to adapt itself to it_ new -UToundiogs. — 0. F Holder, m " Solentifio Amerioan."