The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-12-30
LANGUAGE OF FISHES
EXPERIENCES OF PROF. KOLLICHER
HE SAYS FISHES TALK.
He Has Undertaken to Translate the
the yernacular Of Human beings.

ern California coast, 1 was introduced
to Professor Kollicher. We had con-
versed but few minutes when he took
from his pocket several strange looking
objects that might have been patent
clothes pins. IL am a disciple of Gar
ner," he said. What he proposed to
do with the gorilla 1 am going to do
with the sculpin and the shark. AS an
example, here he held out the clothes
pin-like objects, there is an imitation
fish tone for remorse, and here one for
10y taken by me from life. Whenever
L caught fish that uttered a sound
held it's head up to a monograph and
SO caught the sound; then / had these
vocal limitations made. can sit on
the rocks here and attract any fish by
my talking machines, but / wish to test
the thing under water.
you see," continued the Professor,
that object on the DOCK pointing to
what 1 had supposed was a wooden
crate, "well, that is a cage of iron
which 1 am going to enter and have
lowered to the bottom of the bay here.
1t is equipped with all the modern APP
pliances and the latest scientific dis
coveries. My object and the Pro-
fessors rhinestone cleaned and scintil-
lated in his enthusiasm, lis to discover
and translate the language of fishes"
grasped the idea at once; there was
only one point .Where do l come in?'
I asked.
"Oh, in the tank certainly" replied
the Professor, evidently MISUNDERSTANDING
ing me. 1T invite you to join me; join
me in the honor of the discovery
/ strongly thought that the Professor
wished the honor OF drowning WIN me,
| but said nothing. 1 learned that the
local press had not gotten wind or IL,
| SO finally accepted
The average reader of these lines will
| perhaps imagine that the Professor had
| gone mad, and that the writer was per-
| haps in like condition, but not SO. Ii
so happened, as the Professor had re-
marked, that / had made many re-
| searches into The language Of fisnes,
and if I had not talked with them, had
listened to sounds uttered by no less
| than twenty different kinds-this. Of
| course, out of water If. now. the same
sounds could be distinguished under
| water and could be initiated it could be
| proved that fishes talked and had
| language.
| Among the fishes had listened to was
| the haemulon of Mexico. Holding 1T in
my hand, it uttered series of grunts
| or cultural sounds which so appealed to
| me at the time that 1 released the fish.
| The dogfish of the East utters bark
| ing croak The drumfish of New Jersey
| utters a loud sound. The catfisheS ut
| ter sounds, as do the little sea horses
| (hippocampus) low sound not unpleas-
| ant The club have heard croak. The
L -I>r he. xxyl1i inc nd
| the club sucker utters single sharp
| note. while the catfish (amiuruS lynx
/ huns and may be called the singer
| among fishes. 1 had listened to the
| note of the sculpin that haunts the
/ shores of Catalina. The murray, one
/ of the sea cells, produces singular me-
| tallic musical sound. i had not only
| heard these sounds, but knew how they
| were produced. In the zeus murmur-
/ ing fish, the sound comes from the
| swimming bladder. that has dia-
| phragm and muscles for opening and
| closing it, The catfishes and cells pro-
! duce their notes by forcing air from
| the swimming bladder into the oesopha-
gus In the sea horse the vibrations of
| certain voluntary muscles produce the
| sound, and so Oh. When 1t is remem-
| bered that the air bladder of fishes is
| homologous TO the lungs of the higher
animals and the pneumatic duct may
be compared to the trachea of birds and
| other higher animals we see there is
| some resemblance between sounds pro-
| duced by fishes and those of other ami
| mails.
The next thing was to hear them in
| their native element, and as we know
| fishes have ears they certainly must be
| able to emit sounds. So it will be seen
that the Professor had fair grounds for
| believing that he was on the threshold
OF great discoveries and might accom-
IL 49, Cfr xx-ifh n
esS.
UNDER THE WATER.
Matters were conducted with secrecy.
The steamer Falcon. which had a large
| boom and tackle, was generously offered
by the Wilmington Transportation Com
pany, and late one afternoon the at
| tempt was made. A place called Peb-
| BILE Beach was selected as famous for
its fish and their variety, and the Fal-
con came to anchor in about sixty feet
| of water. The tank was of iron, baS-
| ket-like structure, open on all sides like
| a crate, with two revolving seats or
stools in the center. 1t was, as the Pro-
fessor said, a protection against sharks
yet admitted fish Of large size. It was
provided with all the remarkable in
ventions used by PANEL at the Naples
aquarium, submarine camera, a phono-
graph with an enormous receiver and
various other objects. as mirrors. bait
boxes, knives. spears, etc. Finally all
was ready. We entered our armors, the
head pieces were screwed on. the tele-
phone attachment between us connected
and at the word the Professor, who
wished, as the invention was his, the
honor of going down first, entered and
the cage was lowered out of sight. Ir
just five minutes he telephoned me that
| he had reached the bottom and the cage
was resting on huge rock in a most
advantageous position. / then de.
| scended. 1t was my first experience In
divers suit. but i was surprised al
| the clearness of the water, and the only
inconvenience was a ringing in my ears
| landed by the side of the cage, opened
the iron door and took my seat by Kol
| licher.
The situation was so novel that for e
| few moments / sat in bewildered con
temptation OF the scene. ! could see fol
| twenty or thirty feet on either side dis
tinctly. and above US every object could
be plainly distinguished; the delicate
| tracery of the jelly fish, the fairy-likt
| form of the velella. while small fishe:
seemed poised above us in the watery
atmosphere. The rock upon which W.
| rested was huge block that stood ter
feet from the bottom. and from it {,
the shore was gradual rise for 500 fee
over rocks and pebbles covered Will
short weeds 1 was recalled to m,