12 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



If we refer the records he gives on page 238 to the 

 squares of his chart, we find that they give us a much wider 

 distribution with respect to time of year than Professor 

 Thompson would have us believe. The most easterly 

 records, those of squares XII, XVI, and XX, indicate that 

 forty-three fish were obtained between October and January. 

 To this number I can add twelve obtained in February 

 1909 from square XX, and I learned then that Chimaera was 

 obtained from the same region in March of several years, 

 at the period of the year when the Shields boats go to that 

 area. Holt's record extends the occurrence in this region to 

 May. The other squares east of the Shetlands indicate 

 captures from December to April. We have thus evidence 

 of the presence in the north North Sea region of Chimaera 

 from October to May. 



West of the Orkneys and Shetlands the records refer to 

 fewer captures got from May to September. 



It is plain, therefore, that Chimaera is rare in the area 

 considered, and the incidence of capture is due, to a certain 

 extent at least, to the fact that certain regions are fished 

 more particularly in the season of capture. 



It was only after he had made his reconstruction that 

 Professor Thompson was plainly told by Holt's Irish records, 

 and especially by the fishermen at Cardiff and Fleetwood, 

 that the home of the Chimaera is in the North Atlantic. He 

 was informed that north-west and south-west of Ireland and 

 south as far as Spain, Chimaera is numerous and caught all 

 the year. At the time, a year or two ago, when fishing was 

 prosecuted with increased intensity from the western ports 

 and was joined in by boats from eastern ports, it became 

 plain that Chimaera and other bathypelagic fish of the North 

 Atlantic became more and more numerous the deeper the 

 water. 



It is not a scarce fish, therefore, in the North Atlantic, 

 although as has been said it is scarce north of Scotland and 

 north of the North Sea. This is the first point which it is 

 necessary to appreciate, for it follows that the few fish which 

 are found north-west of Scotland and perhaps even beyond 

 that to Norway, have migrated there from the Atlantic. Of 



