CHAPTER LXI 



THE ORDER OF THE CHIMERAS 



CHIMAEROIDEI 



The Chimeras are introduced for the purpose 

 of making our series of fish Orders reasonably 

 complete, and not because of anticipated personal 

 acquaintance with them. For fifteen or twenty 

 years one may live on the Atlantic coast, frequent 

 its fish markets, and fish occasionally at first 

 hand, without once seeing either a live Chimera, 

 or one freshly caught. They inhabit blue water 



The Spotted Chimera,'-^ figured herewith, is 

 said to be extremely abundant just off the borders 

 of the submerged plateau that extends all along 

 the northwest coast of the United States. It was 

 frequently taken in the dredge hauls made by 

 the steamship Albatross, the majority of the spec- 

 imens being under 2 feet in length. 



Like all the members of this Order, — the total 



SPOTTED CHIMERA. 



only, have no commercial value save as scientific 

 specimens, and in our Atlantic waters are rarely 

 caught elsewhere than on the off-shore fishing 

 banks of New England. 



As a natural result of these conditions, the 

 shark-like chimaeroids are the least known of 

 all the fishes that inhabit our shore waters. In- 

 deed, there are several species of deep-sea fishes 

 that are much more common in fish collections 

 than they appear to be elsewhere. One species, 

 however, of the Pacific coast, has been studied 

 by Dr. Bashford Dean, and it will be set forth 

 on the strength of his description.^ 



number of which is very small, — this species re- 

 sembles a big-eyed shark with a cutlass-fish tail. 



The head is blunt and very thick, and from it 

 the body gradually tapers down to the whip-like 

 tail. The skin is smooth, and the paired fins 

 are shark-like. 



The front dorsal fin is provided with anterior 

 spine-folds, like a fan, and may be depressed into 

 a sheath in the body-wall. 



The sense organs are similar to those of sharks, 

 and the visceral parts also are shark-like. The 

 skeleton is cartilaginous, and the vertebral axis 

 is notochordal. Of the embryology and life his- 

 tory of the Chimeras generally, practically noth- 



' " Fishes, Living and Fossil," 

 sity Biological Series, page 100. 



Columbia Univer- ing is known. 



431 



^ Chi-me'ra coVle-i. 



