Contributions from the Biological Laboratory of the U. S. Fish Commission, 
Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 
THE REAPPEARANCE OE THE TIEEFISH. 
By hermon c. rumpus, -Ph. d., 
Director of Biological Laboratory of United States Fish Conunissio)! . 
During the past summer the investigations of the United States Fish Commission 
have brought to light the facts that the tiletish {LopholaUlus chama'leouticeps), once 
supposed to be extinct, occurs in great numbers off the southern coast of Flew Eng- 
land, and that its capture requires only the ordinary apparatus used in cod and 
haddock fishing. This fish possesses excellent food qualities and its reappearance 
may result in the development of an industry of considerable importance. Its history 
is of scientific interest, since it furnishes evidence that life on the sea bottom is 
subject to periodic modification, and that a species almost annihilated may become 
quickly reestablished. 
In May, 1879, Captain Kirby, of Gloucester, in command of the schooner MHlUam 
V. Hutchins, while searching for cod and hake almost directly south of Kantucket, 
caught great numbers of a “strange and handsomely coloi'ed fish.” The first catch, 
of nearly 2,000 pounds, was made in water varying from 80 to 120 fathoms in depth, at 
latitude 40° 04' K., longitude 70° 23' W. Four trawls were used, each about a mile 
in length, and bearing 1,000 hooks. Nearly all of these fish were thrown overboard, 
but a few were kept and cooked. 
Captain Kirby stated that they were the finest fish he had ever eaten, and he 
determined to save and salt all that he might catch. The trawls were set the same 
day in latitude 40° 04' N., longitude 70° 17' W., and again in latitude 40° 00' K., 
longitude 70° 04' W. Both sets yielded about 2,000 pounds of dressed fish, which, 
on being lauded in Gloucester, were sold to Messrs. Friend & Son, who disposed of 
them in various ways. 
Captain Kirby sent one of the fish to the United States National Museum, where 
it was examined by Messrs. Goode & Bean, and described (Proceedings U. S. Nat. 
Mus., vol. II, pp. 205-208) as a new genus and species {Lo 2 >holatilt(s cham(eleonticeps). 
Keccntly it has been assigned by Jordan & Evermann to the family Malacanthidtv, 
a group of fishes of somewhat obscure relationship, found in temperate and troj)ical 
seas. 
In July of the same year Captain Dempsey, also of Gloucester, caught 9 tiletish 
while fishing for cod in a locality 50 miles south by east of No Man’s Laud, in 75 
fathoms of water. 
F. C. B., 189«— 21 
321 
