Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 242, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1915 — Page 3

FISHES of the DEEP SEA

by L. HUSSAKOF

in the 1 AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL

w P TO the time of the “Challenger” 8 expedition, very little was known reI garding the fish life of the abyssal depths of the s6a. Only about 30 ■ species were known. But the wonderful collections brought back by the W “Challenger” from her four-year ■ cruise (1873-1876) made known the * W vast diversity, the strangeness and “■ ■ ■ *■"" * even weirdness of this fish fauna. Several hundred kinds of deep-sea fishes had been collected—some of them dredged from a depth of more than a mile —and It required a huge quarto to describe and picture them. From this volume dates our real knowledge of the fishes of the abyssal deep. The “Challenger” expedition was, inded, a “Columbus voyage in ichthyology; it opened a new chapter in the history of the science. Since that time many deep-sea exploring expeditions have been sent out by the various nations, and hosts of other fishes have been brought up from the oceans in all parts of the world. More than a thousand species are now known, and we can appreciate at its full value jthe richness and strangeness of this fauna. Moreover, not only do we know the fishes themselves, but, as a result of the scientific investigations carried on by the various expeditions, we now know a good deal of the physical conditions under which they live, so that we can, in a measure at least, explain the why and wherefore of their extraordinary characteristics. When we think of life in the deep-sea, there comes to mind, first of all, the enormous pressure which these creatures must withstand. This pressure becomes the greater the deeper we go down, and in the profoundest depths it equals thousands of pounds to the square inch. The result of this pressure is that the tissues of these fishes are tender and loosely knitted together. When they are brought up out of the dark depths, and the great pressure under which they live is removed, the explosion of the gases within them bulges out the eyes, and often blows out the viscera through the mouth, while the muscles collapse, leaving them soft and flabby like moist rags. Most deep-sea fishes are very small also, usually only a few inches in length, and it is probable that this reduction in size has come about, to some extent at least, from the great pressure under which they live. ' Another important condition is the dimness of light, or even darkness in the profound depths of the sea. If we imagine ourselves descending into the deep ocean, we see the light grow dimmer and dimmer as we go down, until finally a level is reached beyond which no light penetrates at all. The entire vast depth below ft, is in eternal darkness. Now the fishes living in this dim light, or in total darkness, have been profoundly modified by it. In some forms the eyes have become very small, and in some cases have entirely disappeared. There are even fishes in which the skin and scales of the body have grown over the place where the eyes should be, so that these fishes are, as has been aptly said, “blind beyond redemption.” Other forms, on the other hand, have been affected in an entirely different way. The eyes, instead of growing smaller, have grown larger, as if in an attempt to catch every fleeting ray of light In some fishes this has been carried so far that the eyes have become like enormous goggles. Most deep-sea fishes have luminous organs of one kind or another, so that they carry their own light about with theni. In some the entire body glimmers, the coating of slime which exudes from the pores and lateral canals, emitting a soft silvery glow. In others rows of minute, luminous organs run along the sides of the body, or there are flashing light-spots on the head or face. What a wonderful sight would be to us a small black fish flitting through the silence and darkness of the deep with its headlights and row of pores gleaming through the darkness like some small ship passing through the night with its portholes all aglow! Some deep-sea fishes have a luminous organ at the end of a feeler on the head. A pertinent question may be asked: How do we know these fishes glow and glimmer, since no human eye has ever beheld them in their abyssal home? We know this partly from analogy and partly from actual observation. ’When one is in a boat in the tropics, one of those sultry nights when everything is a dead calm, and the black clouds hang so low that sky and sea form one continuous blackness, then one may see the glimmering fishes darting out of the path of the boat, their forms, silvery and ghostlike, outlined for one moment against the blackness of the sea. This effect is chiefly flue to , the o-Hdiring of the slimy secretion covering / their bodies. Why shall we not believe, then, in deep-sea fishes a similar phenomenon takes place, particularly as la many of them

the slime pores and canals are greatly developed and must exude large quantities of slime? Then too, on deep-sea expeditions, on favorable occasions, 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 a 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 “glimmered like a ghost as it lay dead at the bottom of the pail of turbid seawater.” So that by inference, as well as by actual observation, we must believe that what we call luminous organs in deep-sea fishes, emit light into the darkness about them. lii the case of fishes totally blind, the absence of light is compensated for by the development of enormous antennaelike feelers, modified from fin rays, so that these fishes can feel their way, hs 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 therefore no vegetation of any kind in the profound depths of the sea. The deep-sea fishes are, in consequence, all carnivorous, the more powerful ones seizing and devouring the weaker ones. It is a cold black world where might reigns supreme. Many have enormous mouths, and formidable teeth to insure holding the prey. In some forms the teeth are so 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, 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 filaments have become much reduced in size, and in a number of instances some of the gill arches bear no gill filaments at all. The fishes are apparently adapted to a much smaller oxygen supply than those living in rivers or in the shallow sea. y '• When we think of the vast diversity among these fishes, the question arises: Are they all representatives of a single family or group that has become specially adapted to life in the deep sea; or do they belong to different families or groups? One need hardly be an ichthyologist to answer this question. Even a cursory examination of the plates in a work on deep-sea fishes will show that different types are represented. In fact, a great many families are included in the deep-sea fauna. There are 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 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 differentiated In diverse directions, so that while some develop#''! enormous mouths, powerful teeth, or phosphorescent organs, others became bottom-living and partly or completely lost their eyes. Still others developed long feelers for groping 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 parallelism. The museum’ has recently prepared for exhibition a number of typical deep-sea fishes arranged in the form of a group. The preparation of this exhibit Involved many technical difficulties, such as the modeling of the fishes In transparent or translucent media, to represent them •a glimmering or shining with lit-up "portholes.” Considerable experimenting was necessary to ~

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

accomplish this group, but all the difficulties were overcome, thanks \/ to the ingenuity and perseverance of Mr. F. F. Horter of the museum’s if taxidermist staff. The group, as it ||j i S now Installed, represents ten |? types of deep-sea fishes. It is not, of course, a group in the sense of the habitat groups displayed in the museum; it is not a section, so to __speak, taken from nature and trans- ’ planted to the museum. In nature so many deep-sea fishes are not to be found in so small a space. What the group represents is a number of flsheß which are nature scattered over a vast area and through a great height of water, here brought together for museum purposes into a few square feet of space. Each fish is reproduced accurately with Its phosphorescent pores and tentacles as these are known to exist. With one or two exceptions they are enlarged several times, as the fishes themselves are very small. And since it is known that the phosphorescent organs do not glow with a steady light, the illumination of the group has been arranged so as to have these luminous organs flash intermittently. Furthermore, the installation is arranged so that one may view the fishes for a few seconds in full light, as if in a synoptic exhibit, and then see them, when the light goes out, as they are supposed to appear in the darkness of the profound depths, lit up only by their own phosphorescent organs. Near the top of the group is seen a fish which lives on the border line between the region of dimness and total darkness. Many of the fishes living in this region are not of a uniform somber hue, but are brilliantly colored. Neoscopelus if one of these. The body is “one dazzling sheen of purple and silver and. burnished gold, amid which Is a sparkling constellation of luminous organs” (Alcock). The glowing fish in the center is Barathronus diaphanus, a small fish known from a single specimen, which was dredged in the Indian ocean at a depth of a little over four-fifths of a mile. The model of it is one and one-half times the natural size. The phosphorescent fish with the curious long tail (at the right) is Glgantura chunl. It, also, is known by only a single specimen. This was brought up from a depth of four, fifths of a mile in the Gulf of Guinea, on the west coast of Africa. The model is twice the natural size. The two dark fishes with enormous gaping mouths (near the top, at the right) are Gastrostomus bairdi. This species is commoner than some of the others, a number of specimens being in several museums. The modqls of it in the group are copied life-size from a specimen In the museum. The species occurs in the Atlantic ocean, near the American coast, in the- path of ocean liners. Specimens have been dredged from a depth of nearly three miles. Near the bottom of the group at the left-hand side, is seen an eellike fish with a line of lit-up pores. This is an enlarged model of Stylophthalmus paradoxus, a small silvery fish widely distributed in all the oceans, whose young also are known. The generic name it bears was given it in allusion to the fact that the eyes are perched on long slender tentacles. The species ranges from a depth of a little less than a mile to two and one-half miles. Another form with tentacles is Gigantactls vanhoeffeni, a species typical of many deep-sea fishes which have a tentacle, terminating in a luminous organ, attached to the head. This tentacle serves as a lure for attracting prey. The present species is known hy \only two specimens which were found in the Indian ocean at a mile and a mile and a half from the surface. The creature Is * very small fish, the model being enlarged sir times.

“As a motorist, is Jinks in the running?” “Is he? He ran up a bill for repairs, ran dowfl a woman in the street, ran away from a running comment of the crowd and was run In by a policeman.”

“The new idea of fresh-air games Is working well in the insane asylum, isn’t It?” “Yes. indeed. The Inmates ars Just crazy about It."

"That motorist was developing railroad speed when the cop got him.” “I see. ▲ case of arrested development” - * ■->r'- • » ; : y

HIS STATUS.

NATURALLY.

JUST IT.

FolK We Touck In Passing

By Julia Chandler Mang

THE BUBBLE

When The Man found the apartment in which he had been told that The Girl lived he stood hesitating to ring the bell, his heart gripped by the iron hand of fear, his mind leaping at every possible and impossible explanation of the presence of this young woman who was so alone in the world and totally dependent upon her own earnings for a home in what he knew to be one of the most expensive apartment houses in the city. Finally he mustered his courage and his ring was answered by a polite maid who ushered him in, and took his card with the promise of presenting it to her mistress. As The Man sat waiting his eyes wandered over the many rooms with their exquisite appointments, and when The Girl came to him smilingly composed, somehow It seemed to him that all of his world was being tom from under his feet, and so intense was his suffering that he stood holding her outstretched hand and gazing into her averted face without a word until she shook herself free. “What does it mean?" he faltered. “Tour letter, breaking our engagement —and this." He swept the apartment with comprehensive gesture, and The Girl’s eyes followed its direction, while with complete frankness she told him. “Life has been very beautiful since you went away,” she told him. “At first my thought followed you continuously, and my sympathies were with you in your struggle to make your

way In your new position, and I was Interested In my own work, and satisfied with what I could earn —until — well, until I was taken ill.” “Ill!” exclaimed The Man interrupting, “why didn’t you tell me?” “During my illness,” The Girl went on, ignoring the interruption, "some one was like a dear guardian angel to me, and when I was better he made me see that I was never meant to struggle through years of poverty with a nu»i of no means; made me see that life without luxuries was a hideous sort of thing for a woman; made me understand the greatness of his love for me, and little by little my heart went out to him for all his kindness to me.” The Man was on his feet before The Girl had finished, stumbling blindly toward the door. When he had reached it he turned and asked her in a tone divested of all hope just when her marriage had taken place. “Marriage!” exclaimed The Girl, “why there has been no marriage. There are reasons why we must wait —” She finished her sentence to an empty room. When The Man had spent several weeks alone with his thoughts he knew that the great and tender love he bore The Girl still lived. Be thought of her youth, her beauty, her careful training in a refined home until the death of her parents; he knew that the siren voice of wealth and luxury was very sweet in the ears of a woman and he believed so firmly that The Girt had been swept off her feet, sad had no realisation that she

“What Does It Mean?” He Asked.

was giving up every single thing tn life worth having, that once more he went to her and told her that this life she had chosen at the price of her soul was at best but a bubble that would surely break, and offered her the protection of his name, and the best that he could accomplish through earnest work; promising that the past six months of her life should be as a closed book between them, whereupon The Girl laughed at his earnestness; assured him that some day the obstacles to her marriage with her lover would be removed, and declared that, in any event, she was quite content. The Lover was long attentive to The Girl, and lavished so many luxuries upon her that she became satiated with pleasure and so steeped in indolence that she forgot to trouble over the continued excuses for their delayed marriage; forgot the flitting of time until one day she learned from the daily press—as any casual reader might have done —that the man in whose keeping she had placed her life and its honor had married a brilliant woman whom society respected and had gone abroad for his honeymoon. At first The Girl thought there must be some horrible mistake —some confusion of names perhaps—but such a hope was shortlived. Dismissing her maid from the apartment The Girl spent an hour before her mirror—a crucial hour in which the beautiful long French glass told her a frank and hideous truth. It said that the years of her youth had slipped away unnoticed; that ind»

lence and luxury had added so much flesh that all semblance of the once slim and graceful figure was gone. Suddently she remembered The Man, and his stricken face as he had left her in that long ago yesteryear. The fine and beautiful thing he had done in offering her his name in the face of the life she had chosen struck her foa the first time with Its full significance, and all there was of holiness left m her heart rose in prayer to God that it might not be too late. The letter she wrote The Man was blotted with tears. When she mailed it a sense of peace stole into her aching heart until the days went by, one after another, and there came no answer. The days lengthened into weeks; the weeks into months, and the months into years, and as The Girl still waited respectable women drew aside their skirts and men gave her a cynical smile as she came down step by step to her small room in a third-class boarding house where she sits alone in her ostracism, watching with hungry eyes the happiness of protected wives, hearing the laughter of little children, and thinking of her own heritage given in exchange for a gay little bubble that was sure quickly to break.

A Shedder of Tears.

“Ton say he’s a drummer and neve* tells a funny story?” "That’s right." "I should think ha would be hand* Haieltotoml. stones and the rale he play* hi WM of sympathy.”