Savannah morning news., 1886-02-06
SOUTHERN Fishes AND THE
COLD
Fatal Effects OF the Late Cold Snap on
the Denizsns Of the Deep.
From tho Ke4o orleans Picayune,


From tho Neto Orleans Picayune,
Tuesday reporter met Mr.. A. o. Will
son, civil engineer, well known in this
city, having been for some time in the
service Of the United Engineers in this
district, but now engaged in surveying
lands in Florida. Mr.. Wilson stated that
during the recent cold snap while he was
making voyage from Tampa to Cedar
Keys, the schooner in which he
had embarked was wrecked on
Cedar Keys on Jan: s. All hands
escaped with their lives, but
suffered greatly from the cold. The salt
water froze on the reefs in the Gulf OF
Mexico upon which the vessel struck,
and great numbers Of fish, chiefly trout,
sheepshead and reddish, were killed by
the cold and fioated on the water, cover
ing its surface Tor miles.
Inquiries among fishermen and others
ELECTED the fact that during the same cold
spell fish were Killed on the Louisiana
coast, and were seen floating by thou
sands from the Rigolets to points far to
the eastward.
The fact that fishes can be killed by the
degree OF cold that can be experienced in
the Gulf OF Mexico, has been doubted.
In 1882, Brig. Gen. r. B. Marcy, late In
spectOr General of the United States Ar
my, wrote to Prof. $. F. Baird, of the
United States Fish Commission, a COM
municatiOn, in which he made the follow
ing statement:
'Our troops under Gen. Taylor passed
the winter of 1645-46 st Corpus Christi,
Tex, and while there we one night were
visited by a pretty severe frost, which
seldom ever occurred in that locality, and
much to our astOnishment the beach in
the vicinity OF our camp on the following
morning was thicKly strewn with fish and
green turtles that had floated up from the
gulf. The fish were perfectly torpid and
the turtles upon their backs perfectly
paralyzed, 80 that we picked up
many wagon loads, sufficient to feed the
entire army.
at is a we'll known fact that neither
men nor animals can endure any great
degree of cold in that latitude and cli-
mate, and il is not uncommon for both to
perish when exposed to the piercing
northers which sweep over these prairies,
Notwithstanding the thermometer rarely
falls TO the freezing point. lost So mules
out Of ITO in one of these rain storms dur.
ing single night. They laid down and
died while in good flesh. The fact is that
all animal life seems unable to endure any
great change of temperature in that eli
mate, and | am, therefore, of opinion. that
these fish perisbed from enc0untering the
sudden change of temperature"
In the spring Of 1882 vast numbers of
dead fish we're found floating on the water
in the Gulf Stream near latitude 40 deg.
north. say about opposite the position of
New England. These fishes were found
to belong to the species Lopholatilus, or
''tile fish" 1t inbabits the sea at depth
of 80 fathoms, in water which has a gen.
eral temperature of 30 deg. +. 1t was
supposed that the sea where these fishes
were accustomed to stay had become sud-
denly chilled by great icebergs which
had invaded that district. and the
fishes being unable to endure the
sudden fall of temperature were para
lyzed. This, at least, is the explanation
given by the scientists Of the Fish Com
mission TO a catastrophe which appears
to have overtaken all the tile fish in that
portion of the Atlantic, as few or none
have ever been seen since.
Such an explanation can scarcely ae-
count for the destruction Of fishes ocoa-
sionally observed Ia the Gulf0f Mexico in
the hot season. The mortality at such
time is more probably to be referred to
eruptions of poisonous gases from sub
marine volcanoes.