290 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



Dr. Gill as Chimcera plumbea. The Macruri and Ly codes 

 were previously not known to be denizens of waters near 

 our coasts, and the Chimcera is especially interesting as be- 

 iiii:,- the representative of a sub-class not believed until now 

 to have members in the Western Atlantic north of the West 

 Indies. The Chimcera reaches quite a large size (four or five 

 feet), and has several peculiar characters. It is well to re- 

 mind our readers that the deep water in which these species 

 have been found approximates in temperature to that of the 

 more superficial northern seas. 



Several groups of special interest to the American student 

 have been reviewed and their classification revised by Pro- 

 fessor Jordan. 



The Northernmost Fish. 



The northernmost fish known was found by Captain Feil- 

 den during the Arctic Expedition of 1875-76, and is a Sal- 

 monid of the same genus as the British chars and the com- 

 mon brook trout of the Eastern United States that is, a 

 species of the genus Salvelinus. It has been called by Dr. 

 Gunther Salmo arctiirus. Several specimens, twelve inches 

 in length or less, were obtained from Victoria Lake, in lat. 

 82 34', and from fresh-water fiords of Floe-berg Beach, in 



lat. 82 28'. 



Ceratodontids. 



Our readers have doubtless some ideas respecting the char- 

 acteristics of the living Ceratodontids of Australia, so inter- 

 esting: on account of their relations to the forms that became 

 extinct in the northern hemisphere after the Triassic epoch. 

 The habits of some living individuals preserved in a tank 

 have been the subject of observation by Mr. E. Pierson Ram- 

 say: "Their chief mode of progression is by waves of the 

 tail, or by paddling with the pectoral fins alone (without 

 cither moving their posterior pair of fins or the tail). When 

 at rest on the bottom of the tank, the pectorals are placed 

 at nearly right angles to the body, the posterior fins lying 

 parallel to the tail. If not disturbed, they will remain in 

 this position for hours, and only when stirred up think it 

 necessary to use their fins and tail at all. They then lash out 

 with their great strong tail, and, turning sideways, squeeze 

 in between some tufts of grass. They are exceedingly eel- 

 like in their motions; and when going slowly along, the 



