The record-union., 1895-06-22
CANDLES FROM THE OCEAN.
a Great Run of Fish That Yield q
steady Light.

a Great Run of Fish That Yield a
steady Light.
Frazer River people, as we'll as the ma
tives of Alaska, are going TO be well sup
piled with artificial light for some time to
come, and the electric light industry at
Sitka has received a severe blow, while
the gas tanks at Vancouver are threatened
with innocuouS desuetude, says the y New
ork WOrid. All OF this has come about
through a remarkable run of fish which
has occurred along the coast OF British
Columbia and of Alaska during the last
week.
They were not ordinary fish, but nat
ural candles, which have been found
swimming in the Pacific Ocean in i'm
mense shoals. \ dispatch from Van
Couver says that while fishing lasted it
was more profitable than gold mining.
one catch that was made beat all previous
records.
A gentleman rejoicing in the appropri-
ate name OF tinnie captured seventy
buckets of the living caudles which are
called by the natives eulachons. and he
sold them for SI7 90 al the market price OF
70 cents a bucket. When candies are be-
ing hauled out of the water and sold at
this rate The local gas companies might as
well go out OF business, and as a result
The Standard Oil Company on the Pacific
Coast has been driven from the market
temporarily
The eulachons, or candIe-fsh, which
belong TO the smelt family, have long
Alaska. They are largely composed OF
lat. When dried they are stored away
and used as candles during the long win
ter. After the Alaskan has bad his dim
ner he takes out his dried fish, sticks the
tail in crack OF the table and touches a
match to the nose.
Then the fish burns with bright and
steady glimmer. Thus the Alaskan poet
never burns the midnight oil, for his
literary labors are Illuminated by a
eulachon, which, if unusually large, may
burn for an hour or more before it sput-
ters out at the tail.
The Alask&ns also use these fish at
their rude religious ceremonies. Rows
OF candle-fish are stuck in board with
their heads upward. Before the cere-
mony an old man lights the fish. They
burn like q row of candles and throw u
weird light over the congregation at their
deyotiops.
These fish are so common in the waters
of Alaska that the natives scoop them up
with a board. a large plank like pad
die is studded with nails and an Indian
standing on the shore or in boat sweeps
it through the water, gathering in great
numbers OF these natural candles when
the shoal is thick. At New Westminster
the catch of candle-fish was SO large that
they were frozen by the ton, and it is
proposed to ship them to different points
as an experiment. This Will jeopardize
the oil monopoly all along the Pacific
Coast.
Another advantage about these Great
ures is that ii they are not available as
candles they may be eaten and they also
make an excellent substitute for cod-liver
oil. They are so full of fat as to be al
most transparent
The scientific name of these creatures
is Thaleichthys paciticus, but none of the
natives of Alaska would recognize them
other than as water candles" They are
described as an anadromous deep-sea
salm onoid fish.
They resemble the smelt in form, but
with weaker dentition and smaller scales,
and they are of dusky coloration, grow
ing to nearly foot in length In the
springtime immense shoals of these fish
are to be met with along the whole uorth-
west coast of America, and they ascend
all the rivers north OF the Column bia to
spawn. The natives Of British Colum bia
call the eulachon the pantish and use it as
a candle by inserting in it the pith of
rush or strip of bark as wick.
1t would only need shoal of natural
matches now to complete the happiness
of the Alaskan Indians and the destruc-
tion of the oil monopoly in our arctic
province. The supply Of ocean candles
gathered this spring WILL il is aid, last
the Indians for several Years unless they
take to eating them.