Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-01-18
PremOniiOry.

strange and seemingly undue phe-
nomenon is now seized upon by those
who believe in "perihelion pcsti-
lence," to strengthen the theory
they have assumed. The late terri
BILE famines, which have devasted
China, and India, our own yellow
fever plague, the mania for war in
Europe and other parts of the world,
the prevalence Of hurricanes and cy-
clones upon the high seas, the
strange and hitherto unaccountable
lights in the lower st. Lawrence, all
these, and scoro of other things
are now explained by the perihelion
theory. TO the full satisfaction of its
devoted adheren;s. The latest won
der that has received place in this
category of natural phenomena is Il
strange poisoning of tue waters in
the Gulf of Mexico. 4 late number
of the Macon Mr<ScHgcr gives a rath-
er startling account of this affair.
Whatever may be the cause Of this
disaster, for it is none other than
such n visitation Ia the denizens of
the briny deep :,."ng the Florida
coast, it Is e. ..unly worthy of the
immediate attention of our best sci
sntists and experts in chemical an
alysis. The accounts of ship-mas-
tiers who have sailed through the in
fected waters are, doubtless, more
or less exaggerated, but, after all,
there must be something upon which
to found SO many simultaneous re-
ports. The paper above alluded to
says, " The extraordinary phenome-
non displayed on the Florida coast,
by which not only the coast waters,
but as far out as $50 miles into the
Gulf, have been rendered so poison
GUS as to kill the fish and to create a
Presidential stencil i'll bays and har-
bors, where the floating carcasses
collect, should receive thorough in
vestigation. We have seen no 9TH
er explanation of the poisoning than
that it comes from inland waters
the everglades prominently II and
penetrates the Gulf in strata of
dark reddish water, which kills all
the surface fish as soon as it reaches
them, and even far beyond any ap-
parent contact. This poisonous out
flow is stated to have been nearly ia
tai to the fish trade between Florida
and Havana, the smacks finding it
almost impossible to select route
in which the fish in their wells are
not destroyed by the poison"
There are certainly some things
in these accounts, given by eye-wit-
nesses, that cannot we'll be ignored.
In ages gone by, similar phenomena
have been attributed TO the effects
of submarine earthquake action,
and this would be, to us, a sufficient
ly plausible solution of the facts in
the present instance. Another reli-
able paper, the Key West Key, says,
" the smack George Storfs, Captain
Zeb Allen, attempted to run to the
westward in hopes of escaping the
deadly waters, and when fifty miles
west of Tortugas, in twenty five
fathoms of water, lost his whole fare
of fish in very short time. He de-
scribes the poisoned water to the
south aud west of him, as far as he
could see. The largest fish, such as
shark, jewish and turtle, were float
ing around his vessel. He pointed
his vessel eastward, and entered our
port almost Disguised"
Now, fifty miles west of the Tortu-
gas would show the described local
ity to be somewhere about one hun
dred and fifty miles west of Cape
Florida, or very nearly in the mid
die of the Gulf. 1t seems incredible
that any influence from tho above
could react SO far and whatever be
the hidden cause of the evil, it is
probably quite beyond all human ef-
fort to remedy it. But there GER
tainly should be commission ap-
pointed and the whole matter scien-
tifically investigated.
We understand that the family of
Mr.. Peter6eld Turpin are about to
l