Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1882-08-24
DenIEens OF the Deep.

up and the slack of the net came slowly
in. Crabs, individual star fishes, lacerat-
ed iellies, with punches of seaweed, ap-
peared at intervals, entangled in the
meshes, the commotion growing
greater as the net gradually came up
Thousands of tails flashed In the morn
ing sunlight; myriads of silvery forms
darted here and there, leaping from the
water in desperation, while larger
shapes coursing about told Of better
game. A few more steady pulls and
the jumping, cleaning mass OF life was
at the surface. The assemblage was
Argus-eyed and of such variety that but
few would believe that such bizarre
forms could be found about the waters
of Coney Island. The struggling mass
was held we'll In hand, and with huge
hand nets the fnny victims were tossed
ruthlessly into the boat. Menhaden,
blueHAh, weakfsh, skates, young stur-
geon and many more were here repre-
sented, together with several small
sharks that were speedily knocked on
the head and tossed overheard as food
for the crabs and Holsters. Some file
fishes were among the last, as thin as
shingles, very high, with sharp, file-
like top or dorsal fin.
"l think I caught this fellow about
twenty times last season." laughed the
skipper, holding up large one that
rolled its eyes and wagged its brown
tail in q most comical manner.
"No," he replied in answer to q
question, "they amt no use, so we let
em go. Here's another mighty hand
some fish that amt my good"
The fish he held up had a peculiar
high, blunt head and presented most
beautiful appearance, like molten silver,
and is known to science as the "vomer. "
"You never see them at the market,
said the captain, $50 people don't know
anything about them. Now here's
sturgeon-'Albany beef Most folks
think they come from fresh water, but
they come down into the sea, just as
shad, salmon and other fishes go up the
rivers. Striped bass have been reared
in fresh water, Iandlocked too. i sup
pose you think that's kind of a yarn,
but it's fact, and ii was first done by
Mr.. Poll, of New York city. He put
male and female fishes in small pond
of fresh water that was salted twice a
week until the young appeared, when
he stopped it. The old ones lived
about two months and then died. but
the young lived and were afterward put
in big fresh water pond and became
perfect fresh water fishes. Sometimes
we take an Atlantic salmon here, but
it's rare thing. The largest I ever
saw was caught up the Sound at the
mouth of the Connecticut River. It
weighed 1Si pounds, and brought near
ly dollar pound at Hartford. Most
of them come from eggs brought from
Germany and other parts"
"Here's q garhsh," continued the
skipper, hauling out slender, silvery,
long billed fish from the great pile.
''They don't look very dangerous, but
about ten years ago I was down the
South Pacific on trading schooner and
saw q man killed by one. The kind
they have there have long upper bill,
like sword6sh, and grow four or five
feet long. We were lying right inshore
where half dozen natives were In the
water, when all at once they began to
make big powwow and to drag one of
their crowd ashore. / thought Of
sharks, and jumped into the dingy and
pulled ashore. I found that school
of big garfsh had been chased by some
t1sh and had jumped out of the water
among the men. One of them struck O
native, its bill going completely through
his chest. The fish was over five feet
long and weighed about eighty pounds.
I brought away its bill as acuriosity."
"What do you consider the most
valuable fish ?" the reporter asked as
the boat headed inshore.
t'Shad takes about as much money
out of New York city as any fish," was
the reply, "and the demand is increas-
ing all the time. A man has to be edu-
Gated up to eating shad and clearing the
bones. and people are just beginning to
get the run Of it. I've been in all kinds,
of fishing business, from cod on the
Banks to bonyfshing right OFF the is
land here. The most valuable fish to
the Country. as whole, is the cod.
Mackerel stand next, then salmon and
then menhaden or bonyfsh. Around
here menhaden fishing pays better than
anything. You see there is always q
demand for them and from number OF
different sources. Small ones are can
ned and shipped to the West Indies as
sardlnes. They are the best kind of
bait for the cod fishermen on the Grand
Banks. Then the mackerelers use
them as toll bait-toss 'em overheard to
chum up the fish, as they call it. In
Gloucester the fishermen use over sixty
thousand barrels of them year for
bait, and when delivered they bring 81