124 The Vk st American Scientist. 



the work consisted in exploring the Cortez Banks. The results 

 of this exploration have not yet been published. The older 

 charts show them to be situated about a hundred miles from San 

 Diego. The shoalest water is on Bishop Rock, two and one-half 

 fathoms. In some unaccountable way the rumor was spread that 

 the Albatross had discovered a Cod Bank. This rumor was 

 scarcely dispelled after Lieutenant Tanner's published enumera- 

 tion of the food fishes of the Cortez Banks, and the state- 

 ment that no cod-fish were found there. One of the outcomes of 

 the rumors thus set afloat was the establishment of the Pacific 

 Ocean Fish and Canning Company, whose immediate object is 

 the exploration of the economic value of the Cortez Banks. 

 Through the courtesy of Mr. D. Schuyler, I was enabled to 

 accompany the company's schooner Azalene on one of her ex- 

 ploring trips. Although the expedition was highly satisfactory 

 from an economic standpoint, the scientific results were more so. 

 Twenty species have been added to the fauna of the San Diego 

 region; eight species of these are new; eight have been known 

 from the north only; several from north of Point Conception; 

 three are from the south, and one from the open sea. 



The following list of the species obtained may prove of interest: 

 Those new to the locality are marked with an asterisk. Some of 

 these have been noticed by us in the San Diego markets the past 

 winter. 



i. *Squalus acanthi as L. — A school of this species was en- 

 countered in forty-five fathoms. About a dozen were captured. 

 Some of them contained eggs nearly ready to be deposited. 

 This species is at once recognized by its teeth and by its white 

 spots. 



2. *Carcarhinus glaucus(L.) — One specimen from forty-five 

 fathoms. 



3. Stolephorus delicatissimus (Girard.) — One specimen 

 from the stomach of an albicore near the banks; several others 

 from velellas. 



4. *Myctophum californiense sp. nov. — Several speci- 

 mens from forty-five fathoms. .095 m. This species is evi- 

 dently very closely related to M. boops (Richardson), from Van- 

 couver's Island. The chief point in which our specimens differ 

 from the descriptions of boops is the length of the pectorals. The 

 position of the adipose fin differs also from the figure in Giin- 

 ther's " Study of Fishes " and the tail is much slenderer. 



D. 14; A. 21; lat. I.42; depths; head 3^. 



Body compressed-elongate, deepest above the pectorals; dorsal 

 and ventral outlines equally arched. Caudal peduncle long, slen- 

 der, its depth about 3 in the greatest depth. Head short and 

 deep, its depth about 1^2 in its length. Eye very large, with 

 over-arching supraorbitals and raised postorbitals; nasal ridge 

 24 the length of the eye. Eye 3 in head, ^ in interorbitai. Pre- 

 opercular margin but little oblique, opercle and sub-opercle 



