The Irish standard., 1894-01-20
PASTURAGE FOR FISH.
Animal Fodder That Affords Food
for the Denizens Of the Sea-

for the Denlzens OF the Sea.
The swarmiDe Myriads OF Submarine
of the Small Shell-Fish as Well
A Great Storehouse.
The sea has its pasturage as has the
land, says the New York Times, but
the herbage of the animal, not the
vegetable, kingdom; it's areas are
shifting and variable, not fixed or
stationary. Shoreward over its
immense expanse occasionally appear
those marine oases that vary in extent,
character and composition. Notable
among them is that formed of various
small mollusks' and crustacea of the
polar regions, called by whalemen
brit" or 'swhal efeed," which is a
veritable mass of floating fodder
Backward and forward through its
densely compacted fields rushes, with
widely-gaping jaws, the great arctic
whale, engulfing vast quantities.
Similar to this pabulum in use and
apparent purpose is the familiar
1ncnhaden of our coast. Like the
grasses of the far-rolling prairie are
they in number, and like them they
transmute the raw material Of the soil
into fit and assimila Die substance for a
multitude of other forms of life; for
the menhaden seeks the bottom of
estuaries and adjacent waters, where
gather deposits of river silt, and gorg-
ing itself with the soft, clayey slime,
it extracts therefrom the organic
material brought down from the up
lands.
In all soil nourishing vegetation or
ganic matter is contained, which is
readily taken up by the roots OF the
growing plant and diffused as sap
through it's substance. Its solubilltv,
however, readily exposes it to drain
age into water courses, thereby find
ing it's ultimate passage, with
grosser material, to the sea, in whose
quiet waters it is deposited. For the
better assimila ton of this organic de-
post the menhaden's mouth is fur
nished with hundreds of fine bristles,
which enable it to strain it's food after
the manner of the arctic whale. A
closure of it's toothless jaws forms a
natural colander, whereby the coarser
are separated from the finer particles,
which latter only are swallowed. lnas-
much as the larger proportion OF the
catch of menhaden is converted into
fertiEzing material, it thus follows
thai they restore to the land a meas
ure of it's loss, the continuance OF
which infers the reversion of the SUBJ
stance of the menhaden so utilized to
that bourne Of all super-marine ma
te-ial, the ever-hungry, the ah de"
touring SEA.
Upon the Land the plant is the domi~
nant, the animal the subsidiary form
of life, of all of which latter the
former is, directly or indirectly, the
support. The vegetation of the ocean,
however, is very limited in extent and
adaptation to the sustenance of it's tinny
occupants, for, with perhaps the ex-
ception of the nearly extinct monster,
there is hardly O. marine creature
whose subsistence is mainly Or directly
derived therefrom.
In variety and extent the animal life
of the ocean is overwhelming i'll its
iramensity and immeasurably beyond
that existing upon the land. In all it's
varying depths, and in it's every lati-
tude, it teens with animate creatures.
In its lower profound, where eternal
darkness reigns; in its shadows: in it's
middle depths, in the regions OF eter-
nal ice, and, beneath the equator S
burning sun, its waters swarm with
the larger and the lesser, the lower
and the higher fornls of marine life.
The land affords no measure of COM
parisop. 1t has it's bare and sun
scorched deserts, its silent stretches OF
barren ice and snow; but the sea has
no waste places; its every drop is pos
sessed of some measure of life. Only
upon the surface does the r. I'D support
its own, but in the oceans remOSest
depths are found strange creatures,
with structures adapted to the enor-
nous pressure they sustain.
The upper stages Of this vast and
varied scale of being are mainly de-
pendent upon the lower. as upon the
land the animal is supported By the
vegetable world. Chief among tae
marine instrumentalities Of life, Or
converters of raw material into ali
mentary substance, are the molluo,ss, or
shellfish, but of like contributing char
acter is the menhaden. The need,
therefore, of it's existence in swarming
myriads is readily appreciated, and
renders creditahle statements that
otherwise would seem too marvellous
for belief In the opinion of compe-
tent authorities the number Of menha-
den annually destroyed by other fish
along our coast exceeds in weight that
of the entire human population of the
globe, and yet the surviving multitude
is impressive in its vastness.
The Result Of q Euppor.
The following story is rather fairy
like, but it is absolutely true: a col
lege student has contributed several
blood and thunder serials for one Of
the sensational periodicals. Lately he
\ l. A.-1 L.