Tip o’ the hat to Mike L for this sweet find.  The manuscripts and plates from the Challenger expedition are available in their entirety online.  This is a huge boon for ocean nerds, and I intend to spend considerable time going over it once I get the chance today.  Even if you’re not particularly into reading old science texts, 19th century scientific drawings are awesome.  If I had the money and knew where to look, you’d better believe I’d decorate my entire house with them.  Below the jump are three plates from Zoology Report #6: Report on the Shore Fishes with some turn-of-the-century elasmobranchs and one seriously gnarly monkfish (not that all monkfish aren’t seriously gnarly).

All pictures from the Linked Index to the H.M.S Challenger Reports.