CHAPTER LXI 
THE ORDER OF THE CHIMERAS 
CIIIMAER OIDEI 
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 , 2 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. 1 
1 “ Fishes, Living and Fossil,” Columbia Univer- 
sity Biological Series, page 100. 
number of which is very small, — this species re- 
sembles a big-eyed shark with a cut.lass-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- 
ing is known. 
2 Chi-me'ra col'le-i. 
431 
