. The depths of the ocean; a general account of the modern science of oceanography based largely on the scientific researches of the Norwegian steamer Michael Sars in the North Atlantic. Oceanography. 670 DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN especially conspicuous in the case of the minute young of Scombresox living at the very surface, the sides of which are mirror-like, while the back is not black, but intensely blue. This seems to correspond well to the fact that the uppermost layers of the ocean, viewed from above, appear blue. A similar arrangement of colour is met with in boreal waters, for instance Colo
. The depths of the ocean; a general account of the modern science of oceanography based largely on the scientific researches of the Norwegian steamer Michael Sars in the North Atlantic. Oceanography. 670 DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN especially conspicuous in the case of the minute young of Scombresox living at the very surface, the sides of which are mirror-like, while the back is not black, but intensely blue. This seems to correspond well to the fact that the uppermost layers of the ocean, viewed from above, appear blue. A similar arrangement of colour is met with in boreal waters, for instance Colourings of in the colouring of the surface fish, the mackerel. The colours a^ptationsto seem so intimately adapted to certain conditions, and the environment, advantages they offer for the purpose of eluding observation are so obvious, that we can hardly avoid the conclusion that these colours must be considered as the result of adaptation to surroundings. In the surface layers most animals are colourless. The eel larvae (leptocephali) are specially interesting, being indeed so. Fig. 491. Myctophum {Diaphus) rafinesquei, Cocco. Nat. size, 7 cm. transparent that when sorting them out of the living material captured, one can only see their small black eyes ; even their blood is transparent and perfectly devoid of haemoglobin. The surface fishes are so well known that I may merely refer the reader to Plates IV. and V. One group con- taining sea-blue forms is represented by the flying-fish. The pilot-fish are also blue, but with some darker trans- verse bars. Is this because biologically it approaches another group of surface-forms, which live in the immediate vicinity of drifting or floating objects ? To this group belong the wreck - fish {Lirus, Polyprion). We captured such fishes swimming around a log covered with barnacles, and the similarity between the colours of the fish and those of the log and its inhabitants was marvellous. The most intimate adaptations to life among drift
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