CHIMERA OF OUK FOREFATHERS. -19 



''Eabbit Fish." The lower teeth seem to fit into the 

 upper teeth, and they would almost appear to be rodent 

 in action. They are very simple in structure — in fact 

 they are scarcely teeth at all, but dental plates of 

 triangular form ; their structure seems to be tubular. 

 When moist they are semi-transparent, and more horn- 

 like than of the usual hard dental structm-e. 



I fancy the chim^era must be herbivorous, for the 

 teeth, remind me more of the cutting edge of the jaws 

 of the turtle than of any fish. Most unfortunately, the 

 fishermen had removed the viscera of my specimen, so 

 that it was impossible to tell what the fish had been 

 eating. 



Its native home is in the icy waters of the northern 

 seas. I feel convinced, from its shape and structm^e, 

 that we may conclude that it lives in very deep water, 

 probably in the sub-aqueous caverns and grottos amid 

 the rocky clifls of the Polar seas. Its form doubtless 

 enables it to glide with a quick and snake-like motion 

 in and out the rocks in semi- darkness. I argue this 

 latter point on account of the structure of the eye, 

 which is decidedly that of a deep-sea fish, and also its 

 bright and silvery lustre when first caught. The 

 chimera was, I believe, once the synonym of a fabulous, 

 animal, and was made the theme for a skit upon the 

 Eoyal Society in its younger days. We read of a thesis 

 being set in ridicule of its proceeding. The thesis ran 

 as follows : — "Anchimaera bombinans in vacuo possit 

 producere causas secundarias ? " (" Whether a chimscra 

 buzzing in a vacuum can produce secondary causes ?") 

 — a question which I believe has not been settled even 

 by the present generation of philosophers. 



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