FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



73 



Figure 31. — Thorny skate (Raja radiala), female, about 31% inches long. After Garman. 



on the other, and are rough with narrow cross- 

 ridges. A mass of delicate fibrils, matted to- 

 gether, extends along each of the longer sides and 

 partly over the surfaces also. And each horn ends 

 in a slender fibril. 



General range. — The thorny skate is known on 

 both sides of the northern Atlantic. In the east 

 its range extends from the White Sea and Barents 

 Sea to the North Sea, Dutch coast, and western 

 part of the Baltic; 77 in the west from West Green- 

 land, Hudson Bay, Atlantic coast of Labrador, 

 east and south coasts of Newfoundland, Grand 

 Banks, Gulf of St. Lawrence and outer coast of 

 Nova Scotia with the off-lying fishing grounds, to 

 the Gulf of Maine, and thence westward and south- 

 ward along the edge of the continental shelf to the 



77 Doubtfully reported from Belgium and the Bay of Biscay. 



offing of New York; and as a stray to the offing 

 of Charleston, S. C. 78 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The thorny 

 skate is not often seen close inshore along our coast, 

 being restricted in general to moderately deep water 

 (p. 72). But it is now known to be generally dis- 

 tributed in the deeper waters of the Gulf. Thus 

 it is frequently taken on the New Brunswick side 

 of the Bay of Fundy in depths of 10 fathoms or 

 deeper, in 20 to 30 fathoms in St. Mary Bay on 

 the Nova Scotia side. It has been recorded from 

 Casco Bay; from Ipswicb Bay, off Gloucester, 

 Salem and Nahant, and off Provincetown ; and 

 we have taken it ourselves in numerous places in 

 the Gulf at 14 fathoms and deeper, including the 



" One taken in lat. 33°10' N., long. 77°25' W., in 74 fathoms, by the Albatross 

 III is in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 



