FISHES FROM BERING SEA AND KAMCHATKA. 



J- 



By CHARLES H. GILBERT and CHARLES V. BURKE. 



In the summer of 1906 the United States Fisheries steamer Albatross carried on 

 investigations in the northwestern Pacific, especially in the vicinity of Japan. On the 

 outward voyage the vessel passed along the Aleutian chain, touching at Unalaska, Atka, 

 Agattu, and Attn Islands, visited Medni and Bering Islands of the Commander Group, 

 and spent three days at Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka. Shore collecting was carried on 

 in these localities, and some 37 hauls of intermediate net or dredge were made along the 

 route, several of these hauls being highly successful. Rich ground, which would repay 

 thorough investigation, was found on Petrel Bank (north and east of Semisopochnoi 

 Island), in the vicinity of Attn and Agattu Islands, on the submerged plateau about the 

 Commander Islands and on both coasts of Kamchatka. On the western coast of Kam- 

 chatka (latitude 51° + ) lie valuable codfish banks to which American vessels resort. 

 A detailed comparison of these banks with those in eastern Bering Sea is very highly 

 desirable. The Albatross spent but two hours in this locality, at a time when conditions 

 were not favorable for dredging. 



The present paper deals with the fishes collected on the northern portion of the 

 cruise as here outhned, and serv^es again to emphasize the bewildering richness of the 

 northern Pacific in cottoid and liparid forms. Genera like Triglops, Icelus, Artediellus, 

 and Gymnocanihus , which are represented in the north Atlantic by one, or at most two, 

 species, contain in the northwestern Pacific numerous forms, some of which may be 

 widely divergent. Such facts are usually accepted as conclusive evidence of the original 

 home and the center of dispersal of the group thus richly represented. 



On the basis of the hasty reconnoissance which the Albatross was able to make in 

 passing, no sharply defined faunal lines are indicated in the region here considered. In 

 passing from the eastern end of the Aleutian chain westward to Attu and Agattu only 

 minor changes seem to occur. There is no perceptible break between the Aleutians and 

 the Commander Group. The best defined division appears to coincide with the deep 

 channel which separates the Commander Islands from Kamchatka. This is indicated by 

 the failure of certain species to cross this barrier, and by the presence on the two sides 

 of incipient species — representative forms which have only shghtly diverged, as though 

 under the influence of prolonged isolation. 



33 



