The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-05-01
FISH WERE FROZEN
A Queer Phenomenon Encountered
in Behring Sea
Tho Singular Condition In Which . Fish.
ing Crew Found Vast Numbers Of
the Silver Hake-A Won.
derful Sight.

The recently returned salmon fishers,
whalers, and sealers from the Arctic
tell of a strange thing-an occurrence
without parallel in the experience OF
those who sail TO the far north, says the
San Francisco Chronicle.
| A sea captain who was a passenger
on the salmon schooner Glenn tells the
story with much circumstance. The
Glenn left this city in March last bound
for Behring sea, which was reached on
| May 4. In the latter month there is
usually little drift ice, but seldom
enough to interfere materially with
| the progress of the many whalers, seal
ers, and other craft which make for the
sea at that time of year.
This season, however. the sea was
| literally covered with drift ice extend
! ing from the Alaskan peninsula clear
across northward to the Yukon. The
southeast winds usually blow off shore,
| and, driving the ice further from the
land, leave passage between ice and
land. The Glenn intended to make
Bristol bay and stood to the eastward,
but was unable to reach it on account
of the ice, and so had to put back to-
ward the peninsula to await the delayed
southeast winds
1t was while the Glenn and four 9TH
ers passed up toward Bristol bay
that the phenomenon was encountered.
The vessel had just emerged from GU
nimah pass, about half way between
Amoullhta island and Bristol bay, when
vast quantity of dead fish was en-
countered. They were in the water as
far as the eye could see on each side Of
the vessel, and for sixty miles the Glenn
travelled through the shoals of fish.
On examination they proved to be
silver hake, kind of Goldfish, but mar
rover and smaller and having only two
dorsai and anal fin. They weighed be-
tween four and five pounds and were
perfectly fresh, the gills being still
red. Some of the sailors were afraid
to eat them, thinking they had perhaps
been killed by some subterranean up
heaval, or, possibly, through the over
flow from the volcano of Wenyaminor,
which was active last fall. Other sail
ors less fastidious did not hesitate to
cut the fish open, and then a peculiar
condition was revealed. Although the
fish were fresh and had not stiffened,
the gills and intestines were found to
be full of ice. This was not the case
in one instance, but every fish which
was opened, and apparently accounted
for their deaths in such large numbers.
The anomalous condition of the fish
+tos Ii ~ f,1I
ulation. That the fish should be COM
paratively timber and that there should
be ice within them seemed to indicate
that a shoal of them had been sudden.
ly overtaken and frozen to death, and
on the thawing out of the ice the car
casses had been released, but had not
risen In temperature sufficiently to
thaw out the ice in their bodies. Those
of the sailors who cooked the fish said
that they tasted as good as ever, and
that they We're not tainted by sulphur
as they might have been in the event
of their death being due to sudden
subterranean upheaval.
The gentleman who is authority for
the story has been travelling every sea
son to the Arctic since 1883, and never
had seen such a shoal Of dead fish, nor
yet discovered fish with the intestines
frozen as these had. He also drew at
tention to the fact that in the seven
years of his travelling, though he had
often seen black smoke issuing from
the Wenyaminor volcano, near Port
Moller, he never saw it or heard of its
being in active eruption until 1898, in
the fall. Then it belched hot ashes and
flames, and the roar was like artillery.
This volcano is close to the shore, and
the line of fish extended almost as far
north as to a point opposite it. The
captain does not maintain that there
was any connection between the facts
of the eruption In the fall and the find
ing of the fish in the spring, but merely
states the facts as they existed, leaving
TO others to trace any connection or re-
ject any association of the phenomena.
The area of the frozen fish was not
less than half mile wide and sixty
miles long. When the Glenn, on its |
homeward journey, reached Oupimak |
pass again, on August 29, every sign OF |
the fish had disappeared. Many had |
doubtless been eaten by the gulls and !
other birds, and others had sunk in the |
warm water. AS far as the captain |
could state, there was no other fish Of |
any kind except the silver hake in the |
shoaL The carcasses had been per-
haps almost as suddenly released from |
their bonds of ice as they had been en- |
tombed.