1879. | Notes on Pacific Coast Fishes and Fisheries. 685 
vidual taken at Long wharf, inside the harbor of San Francisco, 
about five years since, measures seven feet nine inches in total 
length. 
The chimera, Hydrolagus colliei, is tolerably common on the 
more northern parts of the Pacific coast of North America. Mr. 
Ivan Petroff, editor of the Alaska Appeal, asserts that a Chimera 
which he saw and of which he made a rough sketch (which he 
showed me), was without the long caudal filament of Æ. colliet, 
and had a simple forked tail. Is it possible that there are two 
species of Chimæra in the North Pacific? The specimen just 
mentioned was taken while fishing for halibut and cod, and its 
stomach was filled with broken shells. I do not believe that any- 
thing is on record which tends to prove the use, in,the economy 
of the Chimera, of the curious projection upon the nose, armed 
at the end with a close-set array of hooked teeth set upon a ter- 
minal button of cartilage. The action of the individual in ques- 
tion, which saluted the cabin-boy who hauled it up by taking a 
piece out of his finger with this appendage, tends to prove that it 
is a weapon of offence. 
The sea-basse (Atractoscion nobilis Gill) is one of the most 
highly prized of the fishes of our markets, so much so that its 
name is given to the flesh of other species. Thus sturgeon is 
usually sold in the restaurants under the name of “ sea-basse,” 
and that curious dish called “tenderloin of sole” is sturgeon 
again. The sea-basse is unfortunately not sufficiently abundant 
to supply the demand for it, and is sometimes „absent from the 
markets for months together. It attains a considerable size, 
examples of from fifty to sixty pounds occur not infrequently, and 
individuals weighing seventy-five or even ninety-eight pounds have 
been brought to market. This species and Genyanemus lineatus 
are the only Sciænidæ sufficiently abundant in our markets to be 
of importance as articles of food. 
I have not yet been able to prove whether the cod of the 
Pacific Coast Cod-fishery is Gadus auratus Cope, or G. macro- 
cephalus, as at present I have only seen the dried and beheaded 
examples prepared for market. Appleton’s Cyclopzdia gives the 
quantity of cod-fish taken in 1870, in Alaskan waters, at 94,750 
quintals; whereas the total catch of last year amounted only to 
about 1500 tons, or less than one-third of the former amount. 
This would appear to indicate a great falling off in the quantity 
