114 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Dec. 



A SUGGESTIVE NOTE AS TO WHAT MIGHT BE BROUGHT 

 TO LIGHT ABOUT THE PADDLEFISH THROUGH 

 DEEP LAKE DREDGING.* 



By Andrew Halkett. 



One of the most remarkable things in modern biological 

 research concerns what has been brought to light through deep 

 sea dredging. Many new species of fishes, often grotesque in 

 appearance, constructed so as to resist pressure, and many of 

 them furnished with phosphorescent organs enabling them 

 to see in the darkness of the abyss, have through such re- 

 searches been added to the list. An instance of the kind from 

 our own marine waters relates to the only specimen known of 

 Raja abyssicola — a male obtained at a depth to 1,588 fathoms 

 from off the coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Col- 

 umbia. Upon this fish, in my " Check List of the Fishes of the 

 Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland," I bestowed the ver- 

 nacular name of Deep Sea Ray; and in a foot note, here quoted 

 from that work, I drew attention to that remarkable find: — 



" No ray was ever found at any such a depth as this before. 

 A ray from a depth of 565 fathoms is included in the list of 

 deepsea fishes obtained by the dredgings of the 'Challenger' 

 (Gtinther), and 'R. mamillidens' , a uniform jet-black species, 

 has been obtained from a depth of 597 fathoms in the Bay of 

 Bengal' (Bridge), but as far as available records show, none 

 have been obtained at a greater depth than some 600 fathoms 

 except this one." 



Now, it has occurred to me, for reasons presently to be 

 pointed out, that possibly something concerns the distribu- 

 tion of the Paddlefish {{Polyodon spa'liula), which as yet is un- 

 known. This singular fish still exists in plenty in the Miss- 

 issippi Valley, and in waters of the southern United States, 

 besides which, at exceedingly rare intervals, it has been found 

 in waters of the Great Lakes system, its records, as again 

 quoted from my "Check List," being these: — 



"Exceedingly rare in Canada — the following appearing 

 to be its records: Lake Huron, near Sarnia, Ontario (two speci- 

 mens) ; Spanish River, District of Sudbury (one specimen) ; 

 Lake Helen, Nipigon River (one specimen); Lake Erie (if 

 from the Canadian side of the lake — one specimen) : plentiful 

 in the Mississippi valley and southern United States: also re- 

 corded from Ohio River (LeSueur, 1817, as Plaiirostra eden- 



*Published by permission of the Deputy Minister of Naval Service. 



