THE SCARCER FISHES IN ABERDEEN MARKET 235 



ON SOME OF THE SCARCER FISHES 

 IN THE ABERDEEN MARKET. 



By D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. 



I. The Northern Chimera (C. monstrosa, L.). 



For a good many years past, under Dr Fulton's direction, 

 a record has been kept by the Aberdeen Fishery Officer 

 and his staff of the rarer fishes brought in from time to time 

 by deep-sea trawlers and liners to the market. Most of the 

 work has been done by Mr James Robb, clerk in charge of 

 the market-statistics under the Scottish Fishery Board, and 

 we are greatly indebted to him for a long series of careful 

 observations. The record does not claim to be a very 

 scientific one. Not a few rare or little-known species have 

 probably escaped notice, or have been confused occasionally 

 with closely allied forms. The rarer skates, for instance, 

 could only be dealt with by a specialist ; for even ichthyol- 

 ogists are still imperfectly acquainted with them. Such 

 fishes as these, then, we must leave out of account. More- 

 over, a multitude of interesting things never come to land at 

 all ; they do not attract the notice of the fishermen, but are 

 thrown overboard with the debris of the trawl. It is a 

 matter of infinite regret to the naturalist that the vast 

 explorations of our deep-sea fishermen should bring in so 

 small a scientific harvest, and that, in spite of all this immense 

 commercial investigation of the sea, our knowledge of the 

 distribution of its fauna should remain as scanty as it is. 

 But taking what we can get, we have still much to be 

 thankful for ; and it is in the number and long sequence of 

 these Aberdeen observations that their value lies. 



The occasional occurrence on one part or another of our 

 coast of some rare whale or fish is an event that, of itself, has 

 very little importance and teaches us very little. It is, or 

 seems to be, a sort of accident ; the creature comes our way, 

 we don't know whence or why. The " range " of the species 



