Rocky Ford enterprise., 1915-10-01

the slime pores and canals are greatly developed
and must exude large quantities of slime? Then
too, on deep-sea expeditions. on favorable occa-
sions. as for instance, a dark calm night. fishes
that have been brought to the surface and placed
in water were seen to flash light from the ends
OF the tentacles or the phosphorescent pores,
precisely as we should have expected from
study of these organs. Major Alcock. in his
interesting volume. "A Naturalist In Indian
Seas" mentions specimen brought up from a
profound depth which 'glmmered like ghost
as it lay dead at the bottom of the pail of tur-
bid seawater." SO that by inference. we'll
by actual observation, we must believe that what
we call luminous organs in deepsea fishes. emit
light into the darkness about them. In the case
OF fishes totally blind, the absence of light is
compensated for by the development of
nous antennaelike feelers. modified from fin
rays. SO 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.
plant life can exist In darkness. There is there
fore no vegetation of any kind i'm the profound
depths of the sea. The deep-sea fishes are. in
consequence. all carnivorous. the more powerful
ones seizing and devourng the weaker ones. 1t
is cold black world where might reigns
preme Many have enormous mouths. and for.
midable 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 the
at the equator Undoubtedly this has effect
upon the fishes. although 1t is not yet known
what II is. The amount of oxygen dissolved In
the water also, is much less than in water
the surface. The breathing apparatus of the
deep.sea fishes is modified to suit their peculiar
conditions The gill flaments have become much
reduced in size. and in number of instances
some of the gill arches bear gill flanents
all The fishes apparently adapted
much smaller oxygen supply than those living
in rivers or in the shallow
When think of the vast diversity among
these fishes the question arises: Are they all
representatives of a single family group that
has become specially adapted to life in the deep
sea: or dc they belong to different families or
groups? One need hardly be an ichthyologist
to answer this question. Even a cursory exam
nation of the plates in work on deep-sea
fishes will show that different types are repre-
sented. In fact a great many families are in
cluded in the deep-sea fauna. There are sharks
and rays: salmonoids, herrings. perches. eels.
and representatives of many other families We
can explain this hoterogeneity among them in
this way. We may imagine that fishes of many
different kinds in their search, speak. for
the unoccuped corners of the sea, found haven
in these deeper waters where they 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. so that while
some developed enormous mouths powerful
teeth. or phosphorescent organs. others became
bottom-living AMI partly or 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. so 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.
hilton n number tyDical 6sh
ranged in the form of a group The preparation
or this exhibit involved many technical dificul-
ties such the modelling OF the fishes in trans
parent or translucent media, TO represent Them
glimmerng shining with lit.up "portholes"
Considerable experimenting was necessary to