Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-07-24
ODD FISH.
Banta Station, Ca

Captain Leigh in his voyage to Guiana,
recounts g We saw white thing float
ing upon the water, which sunk when the
ship came within fifty or sixty PAGES of it.
1t resembled mans head without hair.
Some said they saw great many OF them,
and observed two black eyes and mouth
upon them. We also saw strange sort of
fish, about as long as an ordinary lamprey
and equally round, with alarge fin or crest,
above a foot high, over its head, and
stopped in continued series down to his
tail. 1t swims upon one side, so that the
fin, together with the body, represents a
large fish of triangular form, and it makes
its way by shifting from one side to the
other. But when it catches its prey the fin
is straight, AMI appears above the water of
an ashy color, though the body is as white
and as round as tallow candle.
Perhaps the tallow candle fish mentioned
by Captain Leigh is relation of the one
noticed in TIE Coloaist, December, 1879, as
follows In the waters of British North
America, as we are informed, there is a fish,
an odd fish, as surprising In It's way as the
sea serpent and infinitely more useful. 1t
is species of smelt, and may be POLITICALLY
described as an aquatic glow-w worm. We
are told it may be literally used in the same
way as candle by simply setting light
to the tail, when it will burn with fame
as steady as that of the dips which our
grandfathers used to have to put up with
before gas was invented. 1t is a small,
silvery fish. averaging about fourteen inches
long, is excessively fat, and affords an ex-
cellent and valuable oil, which is SO inham-
mable that the dried carcass will serve as
torch. Among the natives the fish is
known as the oolahan, and by them, as by
others who have tasted it, is considered
one of the most delicious products of the
sea, being far more delicate in flavor than
the herring. The fish are caught III wicker
baskets, and are smoked as much as their
oily nature viii allow"
Here are some very odd fish from the
Danube: ''The river Danube has great
plenty of fish, and one sort, uncommon,
called the hellsow, very large fish-some
of them 20 feet long-which are supposed
to come out of the Euxine sea- They
taste like sturgeon, and have hollow,
when dried, they use instead of a whip,
When they fish for them they blow horn
or a trumpet, the noise of which brings
great shoals about their boats. There is a
fish called grundel that has six boards,
two short and four long ones.
Mr. Fotherby tells us that in the Cas-
plan Sea there is deformed sort of fish
called the glutton, whose head seems to be
within its belly. 1t has round tail, seven
CT eight feet broad, and as many long, by
which it can overturn a boat.
Poisonous fishes are often alluded to in
ancient works, and it is but due to their
authors to say that their statements have
been fully confirmed by subsequent inquiry
into results. There is no doubt that con-
gers, pike and barbel have been long, and
still are, recognized in Europe as poisonous
at certain seasons, and the roe of the bar
bel especially SO. The symptoms usually
observed in cases of poisoning of this kind
are nausea, collie, great heat and itching of
the skin, quick pulse, giddiness, loss of
vision, cold, clammy perspiration, and
finally death under commissions. The ex.
act nature of the poison has yet been but
little ascertained 1t has been ascribed
by some to the feeding of the fish
on poisonous mollusca, by some to the
disengagement of sulphureted hydrogen,
and by others again to a particular
specific venom not yet discovered by chem
ical analysis. Whether the fish possesses
that poisonous quality at all seasons is not
sufficiently known but it seems that most
species belonging to the tribe are equally
noxious, for P. 0sbeck, in his Voyage to
China and the East Indies, gives the fol.
lowing startling account of the Tetraodon
ocelatus of Linnaus This fish is one of
the finest | ever saw, but so poisonous
that xyboever eats of II generally dies in
two hours time The Chinese who affirmed
the fact seeing me take the fish into my
hands, earnestly desired me to wash my
self, adding that it is forbidden under some
great penalty to be sold among other fish.
DR.. Stuart Eldridge states that the
salmon is doubtless the most common toxic
fish of japan. From the spring onward
this fish is out of season, and if eaten after
that period of the year occasions such acci.
dents as follow the eating of tainted meat.
In Japan the like dangers follow the eating
of the kateuo (bonito) and the maguro.
The lethrinus nambo can be eaten with
IMMUNITY until it attains certain size
say length of five to five and half
inches-after which it becomes poisonous.
Here, then, it would appear that the age of
the fish has something to do with its -injuri-
GUS qualities. Pappenheim gives list of
more than forty poisonous species, prlnci-
pally inhabitants of the torrid zone. Among
these we find mackerels, perches, herrings
and sea pixies Il All the Year Round.