The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1881-07-02
About Some FISH.

was caught which was Of unusual size, some
4 feet inches lung. 1t Is exceedingly in
teresting to examine the stomach of all fish.
In this dolphin, however, nothing very
curious turned up, though tho veracity of
the fish was quite evident when tho con-
tents of the stomach were exposed. A lot
| OF coal cinders were found, and at least q
half-pound of 3-lnch wrought-iron mails.
An explanation Of how the fish had swat
lowed such strange and indigestible hard
ware was readily found. The ships cook
was IN the habit of cleaning out his stove
every morning at 430 o'clock, and had
been burning quantity of old passengers
berth-boards which had been held together
by wrought-lron nails. These were the
nails, mixed up with the cnders, which
the dolphin had Swallowed
An instance OF voracity of similar
char acter may be told of shark. In the
spring of 1861, while at anchor off the
coast Of Georgia, a ships crew amused
themselves by fishing. Their luck was
poor. For some days all the lines were
severed, and there was no sport. A pilot
| boat told us that a tiger shark was under
our bottom. and that it had taken all our
| bait. We set to work TO catch him. A
shark. hook was baited with piece Of pork
and this soon brought him to grief. We
| rigged running bowlne, kind of nauti-
cal lasso, slipped it over his head, and soon
| had him hauled on board, stern foremost.
| After severing his vertebral column, we
] disembowled the monster. The contents
| OF the sharks stomach were exposed to
view. Among many minor items were
several large Jumps of clay, fully pack of
beef bones, many fish-hoolSs, with pieces of
the lines, belonging to us, two horseshoe
| crabs, inches wide, pieces Of stones, prob
ably ballast, and a half-worn boot. The
most interesting point of this fish story is
the finding of the fellow boot and its
| owner. The inquisitiveness of the writer
| led him to examine the boot most carefully
to find out what had been the effects of the
| gastric Juices on the leather and the nails.
On the upper some few spots of green were
| visible. This was Determined to be green
paint The evidences were that somebody
had been engaged in painting short time
before. But had the artist dropped over
board from some vessel, had he been swal-
lowed by the shark, and was this boot the
sole mortal remains of the painter2 That
day pilot was hailed, whose sides had
just been newly painted. a kind of coro-
ner's inquest held by me brought out the
fact that Captain Smith, of the pilot-boat
Savannah. had been decorating his boat,
had accidentally dropped boot overheard,
splashed with green paint, and that the
shark had swallowed it. In order to claim
property the boot was presented and iden-
titled. The boot was then returned to Its
rightful owner, and, for what know, this
jetsam boot, miraculously saved from a
sharks naw, may be still among the heir
looms of the Smith family.
The intelligence of fish remains as yet an
unwritten chapter, which requires future
study. What instincts we may allow birds
IN their mgrations are followed out even
more miraculously by fish, if birds can see
landmarks, 1T Is not improbable that tho
water fish can be guided by their eyes.
Think Of the shad in Chinese waters which
mount up from the sea to the head of a
river 1000 miles distant from the ocean.
There must be exceeding intelligence in the
| black bass, who protects her young rs va
| llantly as does q hen her chicks. Think to
OF that fish which secures his food by a CO.
| ordination which is really not equaled by
On leaf or spear of grass overhanglng the
! water, he arises to the surface, sights the
insect as ritleman would his weapon of
precision, and unerringly fires a drop of
water, which never misses the tiny mark,
the insect, which, knocked off It's perch by
the globnle Of water, falls into the stream,
and is swallowed.
The assumptions that fish possess q great
amount OF natural intelligence need not be
doubted. A certain sagaclLy ia absolutely
necessary in order TO enable 1ish ~ over
come tho difficulties they must encounter
in obtaining food. An instance of this
character may be cited. Near the Mar
quesas Islands, the peaceful waters abound
in fish and birds. There are constant
schools of flying-tlsh and bonitos. The
latter exist almost entirely On the former.
The fying-fish. by clever flying, are always
endeavoring to escape the jaws Of the bonl-
tos, while the devourers are up to all kinds
of stratagems to circumvent their agile
prey. The bonitocs seem to study the
curve the nylng-fish will take in the air and
the detection caused by the wind, and
| shooting across in straight line, will catch
the tlying-tish as he touches the water at
the end or his flight. On one occasion,
when tho sea was smooth and the wind
| light, opportunity was taken to throw out
o surface drcdge IN order to secure spec-
mems. This drcdge was made of gauze.
For several evenings in succession observ
| cd that shortly after sundown there were to
| be seen on the surface Of the water mum.
bcrs of flying fish. Many of them were
caught in tho dredge, and when taken out
were found to be disabled or dead. This
| occurrence was 80 remarkable that | was
| led to ask the reason why, and at once set
| about finding the cause. Watching the
| sea from u position taken on tho bow of tho
ship rs she was slowly surging through the
water, observed large school of bonitos,
who separated into three divisions. One
took position directly ahead of the ship. tkG
other two at some distances on either be}w,
Presently the party on tho starboarA al
tracted my attention by disturbance on
the surface. I saw them driving 70 school
of fylng-hsh, who, to avoid thG bon,tos,
t.,en tosd , to pass ahead all s OF the shi but they
on the larboard side. F1ihtened. then.
by the bonitos advancmg1,wards them and
thanking them on both sNcs, they took wing,
and after few momS&ts Of hesitation, flew
directly towards tMe ships bow, always