The Portland daily press., 1893-10-26
Pc, Aeic NOVELTIES.
strange Creatures Brought back by the
Fish Hawk.-Lobsters and Crabs of
Many Different Kinds.

fish HaWk.-LObsters and Crabs of
Many Different Kinds.
The Aquaria at the fish commits sion
bu1lding-always one of Washington's
most attractive shows from the point Of
view of visitors have been rendered
more interesting within the last few
days than ever before by brand new
collection of fishes and other water-dwell
| ing creatures fetched by the steamer Fish
| Hawk from the ocean and from Chesa-
| peake bay.
| One of the freshly-obtained curiosities
| is sting-ray about three feet long. 1t
was captured in the Chesapeake, where
| the water is pretty salt-a formidable
| creature, truly. More than half of it's
length is tail, and this appendage is
| armed with a strange ivory-weapon,
sharp pointed and with many barbs.
around with its tail, and woe betide the
luckless fisherman who gets stuck with
it in the leg.
A sting" properly speaking, the weap-
on is not; but to all intents and purposes
it is quite as bad. The slime that covers
it poisons the wound and causes gan
CREME. 1t cannot be drawn out on ac-
count of the barbs, but must be cut out.
The writer once met a man who had
stepped on sting-ray's sting while walk
ing in shallow water. 1t went through
his foot. The animal to which it had
once belonged was long dead, SO there
was no slime on it; but the victim nearly
died all the same -
While wading in the shadows haunted
by these unpleasant creatures, it is not
| uncommon to see abortion of what looks
like the bottom glidesslowly away. The
| effect is the reverse of agreeable to the
| observer. But, of course this animal is
| a mild creature compared with it's near
| relative, the true devil fish of tropical
| waters. The stories told of the ferocity
| weighs ton or more when full-grown,
and is said to have run away with small
vessels on occasions, having become en-
| tangled in the anchor ropes
The sting-ray in the fish commission
aquarium looks harmless enough as it
lies on the bottom of the tank motion
less. But it's eyes are wide open and
bright, showing that it is quite alive
and on the alert The fish has somewhat
the appearance of an exaggerated found
err. 1t attains a length of eight feet,
though specimens of that size are rarely
seen. Allss fishermen regard stipg-rays as
| their deadly foes, and kill them when
| they can, as they do sharks, often tortur-
| ing them incidentally.
Quick Tempered Grabs.
| Likewise from the Chesapeake are
number of fine big blue crabs of the
edible species They get along excellent
ly in confinement, and though they have
a reputation for combativeness, it is not
observed that they fight very much.
! Spider crabs, on the other hand, soon
die in the aquaria, and the case is the
same with the little hermit crabs,
| which occupy the vacant shells of various
| mollusks. The hermit crabs are the
most quarrelsome creatures imaginable,
and are forever indulging i'll pitched
battles with each other.
| In the Chesapeake region, by the way,
| the fishermen have a very odd method
| of keeping blue crabs alive and fresh
for bait They dig good sized pit and
in the bottom of this they excavate a
smaller hole Into the latter they put
the crabs and cover them with boards
| laid across at the bottom of the upper
pit. Then they fill the pit with earth.
Thus the crabs are actually buried in
a chamber, where they have space enough
| to crawl about u little, surrounded by
cool earth. Under such conditions they
| will stay alive and well for many days
Seven brand new Holsters are tenants of
another aquarium. They do not live
nobody knows why. 1t is the same way
with familiar fresh-water erustacean
not unlike the lobster Observation-Disclosures
lly, the crayfish. Both crayfish and
| lobster seem to require moving water for
| health. The former is not found in
be their breathing has something to do
with the problem. Sometimes the fish
commission gets the lobster for its
aquaria from the market-all alive, oh!
Yet another aquarium contains a lot
| of fiddler crabs collected by the Fish
Hawk. They are funny creatures to be
sure, and will bear watching by the
hour. One popularity of theirs is that
one of their claws is huge, nearly as big
as the whole body. while the other oneis
quite small and in ordinary proportion.
The use of this big claw has been a
subject of dispute for a long time, but an
eminent naturalists has recently hit
upon q new and interesting theory. He
calls the little animals sun-worshippers,
"because it is when the sun shines bright
~ that they love to come out of their
| holes in the mud banks and scamper
| about. While rdoing so, this expert al
| leges, they hold the big claw so as to
shade their eyes from the glare-mean
W hiie employing the small left hand
| claw to pick up food.
| In one of the aquaria there is whole
basketball of fresh-caught cells; one of
them about four feet long. Fishermen
appreciate them, though the women
visitors do say that they look like snakes
No difficulty is found in Keeping them
in confinement. They will live in any
moist medium apparently, fresh water,
salt water, or mud. No little ones have
been Matched and reared at the fish COM
missions stations The manner Of their
propagation is as yet IN dispute; but
there is no doubt that they breed in the
sea always. 1t has been asserted lately
that only cells OF one sex ever leave the
ocean and ascend the rivers
In the Manner of Balloon.
Among other fishes in the new assort-
ment at the aquaria are little mummy
chogs, striped mullet, tautog, menhaden
and swell fish. The last named have
a peculiar fashion when caught of putting
! them cafvQS NV c1u, oir