=Modern Science Series= _EDITED BY SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BART., M. P._ THE FAUNA OF THE DEEP SEA [Illustration: STOMIAS BOA. HALF NATURAL SIZE. FROM A DEPTH OF 1,900 METRES. (AFTER FILHOL.)] THE FAUNA OF THE DEEP SEA BY SYDNEY J. HICKSON, M. A. (CANTAB. ET OXON.) D.SC. (LOND.), FELLOW OF DOWNING COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE _WITH TWENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS_ [Illustration] NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1894. _Authorized Edition._ PREFACE The time may come when there will be no portion of the earth’s surface that has not been surveyed and explored by man. The work of enterprising travellers has now been carried on within a measurable distance of the North Pole; the highest mountain ranges are gradually succumbing to the geological surveyor; the heart of Africa is giving up to us its secrets and its treasures, and plans of all the desert places of the earth are being made and tabulated. The bottom of the deep sea was until quite recently one of these terræ incognitæ. It was regarded by most persons, when it entered into their minds to consider it at all, as one of those regions about which we do not know anything, never shall know anything, and do not want to know anything. But the men of science fifty years ago were not disposed to take this view of the matter. Pushing their inquiries as to the character of the sea-fauna into deeper and deeper water, they at length demanded information as to the existence of forms of animal life in the greatest depths. Unable themselves to bear the heavy expenses involved in such an investigation, they sought for and obtained the assistance of the Government, in the form of national ships, for the work, and then our knowledge of the depths of the great ocean may be said to have commenced. We know a good deal now, and in the course of time we may know a great deal more, about this interesting region; but it is not one which, in our generation at any rate, any human being will ever visit.