VI INTRODUCTION. 



which have since passed through our laboratory have brought half as much interest and 

 enthusiasm. Macrurus Bairdii and Lycodes Verrillii were simply new species of well- 

 known deep-dwelling genera, and have since been found to be very abundant on the con- 

 tinental slope, but they were among the tirst fruits of that great harvest in the field of 

 oceanic ichthyology which we have had the pleasure of helping to garner in the fifteen 

 years which have passed since that happy and eventful morning. It seems incredible that 

 American naturalists should not then have known that a few miles away there was a fauna 

 as unlike that of our coast as could be found in the Indian Ocean or the seas of China. 



It should be remembered that although the Challenger has been back more than a year 

 from her long cruise, her treasures were as yet undescribed, and that no one knew what a 

 marvelous wealth of material she had gathered except the naturalists on board. Even 

 they can scarcely have expected that year after year the great quarto volumes of these final 

 reports would continue to be printed, until to-day there are forty of them — the magnificent 

 outcome of the most liberally equipped exploring expedition ever sent out by any nation. 

 Oceanic ichthyology was as yet unborn. 



A year later Dr. (liinther began to publish the preliminary descriptions of the Chal- 

 lenger fishes in the London Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and a new interest was 

 added to the study of ichthyology. From that time until now we have never been without 

 a wealth of attractive oceanic material for study, and the genera and species announced 

 by us from the western Atlantic have been more in number than those brought back by the 

 Challenger, yet the discoveries made in those earliest years have always seemed the most 

 interesting. 



It may be asked how it happened that no deep-sea fishes had been taken by the Coast 

 Survey vessels which began dredging in 1867, or by those of the Fish Commission which 

 began in 1871. The answer is a simple one. The Fish Commission vessels were small, 

 and did not venture outside of the hundred fathom line until 1877, and the Coast Survey 

 in those days collected with the dredge only. When Mr. Agassi/, took charge of the bio- 

 logical work of the Coast Survey, in 1877, he introduced the trawl net, and began to collect 

 fishes, but these did not come into our hands uutil 1883. The nets were not really per- 

 fected until 1883, when the Albatross and the Travailleur began their cruises. 



In 1878 the headquarters of the Fish Commission was at Gloucester, and we began to 

 receive from the Cape Ann fishermen deep-sea forms taken by them on the off-shore banks. 

 In this way came our Haloporphyrus viola and Lycodes paxillus, brought by Capt. J. W. 

 Collins, then of the halibut schooner Marion and since well-known by his writings upon 

 the fisheries; our Argentina syrlensium, G. & B. (since identified with A. situs of Europe); 

 Lycodes Vahlii, a Greenland form, brought by Capt. Hawkins, of the schooner Gwendolen : 

 Anarrhiehas lati/rons, Alepidosaurus ferox, Alepocephalus Bairdii, G. & B.; Synaphobranchus 

 pinnatus, Simenchelys parasiticus, Gill; Chinuvra plumbea, Gill (=ajfinis, Boc. &Cap.); Cen- 

 troscyllium Fdbrieii and Gentroscymnus aelolepis, Echiostoma barbatum, Ghauliodus Sloanei, 

 Reinhardtius Mppoglossoides, Macrurus rupestris, Lopholatilus chamceleonticeps, G-. & B. — all 

 received in time to be catalogued in our Fishes of Essex County, Massachusetts, published 

 in 1879, together with Phycis Chesteri, G, & B., and Eumicrotremus spinosus, obtained in the 

 same year by the Fish Commission vessels. 



In 1880 the Fish Commission began its explorations of the Gulf Stream off the south 

 coast of New England. Dr. Bean was on the Pacific coast and the following were described 

 by Dr. Goode: Monolene sessilicauda, Citharichthys arctifrons, C. unicornis, Thyris pellucidus, 

 Hypsicometes gobioides, Peristedium miniatum, Macrurus carminatus, Halieutaea senticosa, 

 Limanda Beanii, Amitra liparina, Cottunculus forms, Setarches parmatus, Chlorophtlialmus 

 chalybeius, Wotacanthusphasganorus, Monolene, Hypsicometes, and Amitra being new genera, 

 and Mancalias uranoscopus, Ghaunax pictus, and Cottunculus Thomsoni were added to the 

 fauna. 



Apogon pandionis and Benthodesmus elongatus were found in the same year. 



In 1881 we undertook, at the request of Prof. Baird and Mr. Agassiz, to produce a 

 work upon the fishes of the Coast Survey and the Fish Commission together, ami discon- 



