The Idaho Springs siftings-news. (Idaho Springs, Colo.) 1905-19??, 1915-10-01

the slime pores and canals are greatly developed
and must exude large quantities of slime? Then
too. on deep-sea expeditions, favorable
sons. as for instance, a dark calm night. fishes
that have been brought to the surface and placed
in water were seen to fash light from the ends
of the tentacles or the phosphorescent pores.
precisely should have expected from
study Of these organs Major Alcock. IN his
interesting volume "A Naturalist In Indian
Seas. mentions a specimen brought up from a
profound depth which "gmmered like ghost
as II lay dead at the bottom OF the pail Of tur-
bid seawater." So that by inference. well
by actual observation. must believe that what
call luminous organs in deep-sea fishes emit
light into the darkness about them. In the
of fishes totally blind the absence Of light is
compensated for by the development OF
nous antennaelike feeers, modified from fin
rays that these fishes feel their way.
as it were. through the darkness.
The absence OF light, however. entails another
important consequence. AS is well known. no
plant life can exist in darkness. There Is there
fore no vegetation of any kind in the profound
depths of the sea. The deep-sea fishes in
consequence. all carnivorous the more powerful
ones Selling and devouring the weaker ones It
is cold black world where might reigns
preme Many have enormous mouths. and for
midabe teeth to insure holding the prey. In
some forms the teeth large that the mouth
cannot be shut
The temperature OF the water in the profound
depths of the sea- is always low and near the
freezing point. This is true everywhere
at the equator. Undoubtedly this has an effect
upon the fishes, although it is not yet known
what It Is. The amount of oxygen dissolved in
the water also. is much less than in water nearer
the surface The breathing apparatus OF the
deep-sea fishes is modified to suit their peculiar
conditions The gill llaments have become much
reduced in size. and in a number of instances
some OF the gill arches bear gill filanents
all The fishes are apparently adapted to q
much smaller oxygen supply than those living
In rivers or in the shallow
When we think Of the vast diversity among
these fishes the question arises: Are they all
representatives of single family group that
has become specially adapted to life in the deep
or dc they belong to different families or
groups? One need hardly be ichthyologist
to answer this question. Even a cursory exam
ination Of the plates in work deep-sea
fishes will show that different types are repre-.
scented. In fact. a great many families are in
cluded in the deepsea fauna. There sharks
and rays; salmonoids, herrings perches eels
and representatives Of many other families We
can explain this heterogeneity among them in
this way. We may imagine that fishes Of many
different kinds in their search. tc speak, for
the unoccupied corners of the sea. found a haven
in these deeper waters where they we're free
from pursuit by their enemies. In the course OF
time they migrated farther and farther into the
deep. change in habits taking place pari passu
with the changes in structure. Having started
out with different organizations. and possessing
different degrees of variability. they became diff
ferentiated in diverse directions that while
some developed enormous mouths. powerful
teeth or phosphorescent organs. others became
bottom-living and partly completely lost their
eyes Still others developed long feeers for
cropping their way through the darkness. Now
and again. however, fishes OF separate groups
developed similar structures. that there are
many striking cases among deep-sea fishes of
what the biologist calls "convergence" or paral
lelism.
The museum has recently prepared for exhi
bition a number of typical deepsea fishes ar
ranged in the form Of a group The preparation
of this exhibit involved many technical difficult
ties. such as the modelling of the fishes in trans
parent translucent media to represent them
glimmering or shining y It'll lit-up portfolios"
Considerable experimenting necessary to