244 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



spring. And further, while we have no evidence in the case 

 of C. mirabilis of its capture at different depths in different 

 seasons, we do seem to have such evidence in the case of 

 C. monstrosa ; for the few captures in August and September 

 came from much deeper water than, on the average, did 

 those caught at other seasons of the year. 



From the Cardiff trawlers, which do much of their fishing 

 in Atlantic waters and at greater depths than our Aberdeen 

 boats resort to, we might expect very valuable information, 

 and a foretaste of this I already owe to Mr J. J. Neale 

 and to Lieut C. C. Morly of Cardiff. Mr Neale tells us 

 that his boats find Chimaera numerous, almost plentiful at 

 times, in from ioo to 200 fathoms, and occasionally in less. 

 They get it from the W. and S.W. of Ireland right away 

 to the Spanish coast ; it is said, moreover, to occur in 

 the deep water all the year round. In a recent note from 

 Mr Neale's firm (Messrs Neale & West) I am told that one 

 of the chief localities is about 250 miles west of Lundy 

 Island, in 200 fathoms, and that here the fish is most 

 abundant in summer time. Lieut. Morly tells me that the 

 greatest quantities, as much as " two kit, in a 200-kit catch 

 of fish," are got in the deep water west of Tory and Eagle 

 Islands ; and that there it is in the winter time that it is 

 most abundant. 



The egg of Chimaera is a large and conspicuous object, 

 being laid in a horny case, something like a Skate's egg- 

 purse, only more elongated and without the " horns." Two 

 eggs only are ripened and laid at one time, but, just as in 

 the skate, others come on in succession, and the breeding 

 season may thus be very considerably protracted. The egg 

 was a rare thing in collections, until Dr Bashford Dean 

 obtained it in some abundance from the shallow-water 

 species of the North Pacific, C. Colliei. The unlaid or 

 ovarian egg of C. monstrosa was known (as Mr J. Grieg 

 tells us) to Bishop Gunnerus of Trondhjem, in the eighteenth 

 century ; and a mutilated egg was found on the shore of the 

 Namdala, according to Collett, in July 1871. But the first 

 clearly recognised and authenticated specimen of a ripe and 

 spawned egg was found by Mr Green, and described and 



