The histone-encoding genes in Schizosaccharomyces pombe were physically mapped by hybridisation to filters containing cosmid and P1 genomic libraries. The H2A.2 gene and the H2A.1-H2B.1 gene pair mapped between the ade6 and rikI genes on chromosome III. The three H4-H3 gene pairs were mapped to three different regions by a H4.1 probe. Southern analysis of clones from each region revealed the positions of the three H4-H3 gene pairs. H4.1-H3.1 was localised to chromosome I between the mei2 and rad1 genes; H4.2-H3.2 mapped between rad3 and cdc2 on chromosome II; H4.3-H3.3 was localised to a region between the nuc1 and puc1 genes on chromosome II.