The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1892-06-23
ANIMAL DIFFERENTIATION.
GcasSa, Birds aad Fish Sacrificed
to Cor1:norco.
-The Advance CT Civilization Gradually
Waptng Food Creatures Out of Es-
N tstelcc-So;nc startling Few
~ citations on the Subject

The destruction among the wild ani-
mals, birds and fish which has taken
place during the last City ycors could
mot be better illustrated than 1t is in
the report just issued by Frederick
lucas, of the Smithsonian institution,
on the animals recently extinct, or
thrcatcncd with determination, repre-
scented in the National museum Of the
United States. This most Interesting
paper was suggcstcd hy the recent cf-
forts made by American natura!ists to
secure for their museums specimens Of
animals. formerly quite common. which
were passing unnoiicod out OF ex-
istence. and of which in Some cases IL
was found that no living example could
be obtained. This led 70 national
stocistaking of the contonts of the prin-
cipal museums, and incidentally to q
review of the process of destruction us
II Is now going on.
Some of TIE instances given seem el-
most incredible. Cod, perhaps the
.>lnost prolific fish used as a food. were
SO completely destroyed on part of the
New England coast that when the
waters were restoclsed with the produce
of one hundred and thirty million eggs
the fishermen of Plymouth, in Massa-
chusetts, sent specimens Of the new
fish" to Gloucester to inquire what they
were. The work of the fishery COM
anission has already gone far to repair
the waste and destruction of the New
England fishermen, though q strenuous
assistance has always been offered to
their efforts to open the passage for
shad and salmon to the spawning
grounds But the lobster "canneries"
have so far depleted the apparently In
exhaustible stock that tho waters ad-
jacent to the works are cleared of all
but those of the smallest size; and
even the great oyster grounds of Chesa-
,pcake bay are showing signs of ex-
haustion, while halibut are growing
scarcer yearly. If the tceming repro
ductive power of the shad, the cod and
the oyster is unable to replace the havoc
made among them, it may safely be in
-fcrred that the birds and beasts fare
even worse in the unequal struggle for
survival.
II is a characteristic example of the
bias of the supreme Caucasian mind"
In its dealings with new animals that
f Nlcu SOiCDlDuS SillpTS "tic sSiiC W
the top of the islet Of the Alta Vela, in
the West Indian archipelago, TO lock
for the missing ships, when engaged in
the search for the mythical province of
Cipango, they at once marked their Joy
ut finding eight sea wolves" by knock
ing them oil on the head. These ~sea
wolves" were the West Indian seal,
formerly common all over the archi-
pclago and off the coast of Florida and
the gulf of Mexico, but now scarcely to
4 be found the on mainland coast ut all.
1t recently occurred to certain persons
interested In natural history that moth
ing has been heard lately of the Cali
fornia w;ilrus, a huge and harmless
beast which was recently quite common
on tho coast of Lower California It
couid hardly be supposed that herds Of
creatures from fourteen to sixteen feet
long, and Of equal or greater girth,
could disappear from the coast without
being missed, but such appears to have
been the case. Inland skin hunters"
are destroying every animal which has
\ hide worth selling as fast as they
trilled of the bison The price hardly
makes difference. Fifty cents per
sirin has almost exterminated the pee
carries, the fierce little pigs which were
once 90 common in some OF the counties
nj Texas that the ground was covered
by their tracks and the air full Of their
maslky odor. Black-tailed deer aud an
telope fare no better, and from all &C
eounts the destruction Of game in Brit
In Columbia is no less rapid than across
the hoeder.