The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-07-15

a smelt; which hath four eyes, two on
each side, one above another" This
fish, from its faculty of seeing double,
is probably caught half-seas over, but
- Ia swimming it is observed to keep
the uppermost two under wafer As
many fish at particular seasons prime
that is, come to the surface and swim
half submerged, may not the reflection
or refractiOn of the water have had It's
dual effect upon the eyes of the intelli-
gent observer?
Captain Leigh in his voyage to Guiana
recounts, ave saw white thing float
ing upon the water, which sunk when
the ship came within fifty or sixty PAGES
of IT, 1t resembed a mans head with
out hair. Some said they saw a great
MANY of them and observed two black
eyes and mouth upon them. We also
saw a strange sort of fish, about as long
as an ordinary lamprey and equally
round, with large fin or crest above a
foot high over its head and stopped in
continued series down to its tail. 1t
swims upon one side, so that the fin to-
gether with the body, represents large
fish of a triangular form and it makes
lis way by shifting from one side to the
other. But when il catches its prey the
fin is straight and appears above water
of an ashy color, though the body is as
white and round as a tallow candle.
This is corroborated by ThevenoL
Sir Thomas Herbert gives an account
of dolphins which he says were no big
ger than q salmon and that these were
incredibly swift. He was on the coast
of Zanzibar, a large kingdom on the
east side of the Cape Of Good Hope.
There he saw great numbers of dolphinS
of which he gives this description:
THAT they much effect the company OF
men and are nOurished like men. They
are always constant TO their mates and
are so tenderlv affected to their parents
that when they are three hundred years
old they feed and defend them against
hungry fishes, and when they die carry
them ashore and bury them"
At kilgarTing, Pembroke, there is a
cataract in the river called the Salmon
Leap, because they take their tails in
their teeth and spring over the cataract.
This notion still prevails in Norway and
Sweden.
Perhaps the tallow-candle fish men
toned by Captain Leigh is a relation Of
The one noticed in the COlORj5t, Deem
Der, 1879, as follows:
IN the waters of British North
America, as we are informed, there is a
fish, an odd fish, as surprising in its
way rs the sea serpent, and infinitely
more useful It is a species of smelt,
and may be POLITICALLY described as an
aquatic glow-wOrm. We are told it
may be literally used in the same way
IS candle, bv simply setting a light to
the tail. when it will burn with flame
as steady as that of the dips which
our graullathers used to have to put up
with before gas was invented. 1t is
small si}yery fish, averaging about four
teen inches long, is excessively fat and
affords an excellent and valuable oil,
which Is 50 iniammable that the dried
carcass will serve rs a torch. Among
the natives the fish is known as the
oOlahan, and by them, as by others who
have tasted it, it is considered one Of
the most delicious products Of the sea.
being far more delicate in flavor than
che herring. The fish are caught in
wicker baskets, and are smoked as much
As their oily nature viii allow
Here are some very odd fish from the
Danube:
sc The river Danube has great plenty
of fish, and one sort uncommon called
the heIIsow, very large fish, some Of
them twenty feet long, which are sup
posed to come out of the EuXine Sea.
They taste like & sturgeon, and have
hollow nervous chord down the back,
which when dried they use instead of a
whip When they fish for them they
blow a horn or a trumpet, the noise of
which brings great shoals about their
boats. There is a fish called a grundel,
that has six boards, two short and four
long
Mr. Fotherby tells us that in the Cas-
plan Sea there is a deformed sort of
tish called the glutton, whose head
seems TO be within its belly. 1t has
round tail seven or eight feet broad and
as many long, by which it can overturn
a boat
Poisonous fishes are often alluded to
IN ancient works and il is but due to
their authors to say that their state
nents have been fully confirmed by
subsequent inquiry into results. There
Is no doubt that cOngers, pike and bar
bel have been long and still are recOg-
1ized in Europe as poisonous at certain
seasons, and the roe of the barbel espec-
iAlly so. But it is curious to observe
that identically the same fish caught in
two different ATTITUDES shall possess the
extremely opposite qualities of whole
someness and otherwise.
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 oc-
.casions such accidents as follow the eat
ing of tainted meat. In Japan the like
dangers follow the eating of the kateuo
(bOnito) and the magurO. The LethTi-
nus nambO can be eaten with impunity
until ii attainS a certain size-say a
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
injurious qualities Pappenheim gives
a list of more than forty poisonous spe-
cieS, principally inhabitants of the tor
rid zone. Among these we find mack
erels, perches, herrings, sea-pikes and
a large number of species belonging to
the order Plectognathis. The latter
order contains five genera that are pois-
onOus; the most common genus in Japan
Is the teutraOsow, or swell fish, the Spe-
cies of which are known by the general
name of fugu, so poisonous that their
sale at certain seasons is prohibited by
law; but there is strong evidence to show
chat it is the roe of the fish and not its
flesh that has the fatal effects to which
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