The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-10-02
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the slime pores and canals are greatly developed
and must exude large quantities of slime? Then
too on deepsea expeditions, favorable
siOns as for instance, dark calm night. fishes
that have been brought to the surface and placed
in water were to flash light from the ends
of the tentacles the phosphorescent pores,
precisely as we should have expected from a
study of these organs. Major AlcOck, in his
interesting volume, "a Naturalist In Indian
Seas" mentions specimen brought up from
profound depth which 'glimmered like a ghost
as it lay dead at the bottom of the pail of tur-
bid seawater." So that by inference as well as
by actual observation. must believe that what
we 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 feelers, modified from fin
rays, that these fishes feel their way.
it were, through the darkness.
The absence of light, however entails another
important consequence AS is well known. no
plant life exist in darkness. There is there
fore vegetation of any kind in the profound
depths Of the The deep-sea fishes are in
consequence all carnivorous, the powerful
ones selling and devOuring the weaker ones 1t
is cold black world where might reigns
preme Many have enormous mouths, and for
mfdable teeth to insure holding the prey. In
some forms the teeth so large that the mouth
cannot be shut!
The temperature of the water in the profound
depths of the sea, is always low and the
freezing point. This is true everywhere, even
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 flaments have become much
reduced in size, and in number of instances
some of the gill arches bear no gill flaments at
all The fishes are apparently adapted to
much smaller oxygen supply than those living
in rivers in the shallow sea.
When we think of the vast diversity among
these fishes, the question arises: Are they all
representatives of single family or group that
has become specially adapted life in the deep
sea; do they belong to different families or
groups? One need hardly be ichthyologist
to answer this question Even cursory exam
ination of the plates in a work on deep-sea
fishes win show that different types are repre-
sented- In fact, great many families are in
Guided in the deep-sea fauna. There are sharks
and rays; salmonoids, behring's perches, eels.
and representatives of many other families We
explain this heterogenefty among them in
this way. We may imagine that fishes of many
different kinds in their search, so to speak, for
the unoccupied corners of the sea- found a haven
IN these deeper waters where they were free
from pursuit by their enemies. In the course of
time they migrated farther and farther into the
deep, a 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
ferentated in diverse directions. so that while
some developed enormous mouths, powerful
VI PiAOSPAOACSSOHt VI SdAS' OlilerS became
bottom-l1ving and partly or completely lost their
eyes Still others developed long feelers for
cropping their way through the darkness. Now
and again. however. fishes of separate groups
developed similar structures. so that there are
many striking among deepsea fishes of
what the biologist calls "convergence, or paral-
leIism.
The museum has recently prepared for exhI-
bition a number of typical deep-sea fishes ar
ranged in the form OF group The preparation
of this exhibit involved many technical Difficult
ties, such the modelling of the fishes n trans
parent translucent media, to represent them
glfmmering or shining with lit-up "portholes"
Considerable experimenting was necessary to