The Portland daily press., 1895-07-19
deep and let down your nets for 9

deep and let down your nets for
draught.
The sort of nets employed by Simon,
| Peter, James and John previous to the
| time when "they forsook all and followed
| Him to catch men henceforth'' is still in
use at Lake Genesaret,, There are nets e5
"spread upon the water" Qsaiah xix: 81,
but have seen fishermen that cast an
giles into the water. "
''The net works. mentioned by Isaiah
are simple woven affairs, seemingly very
strong without bit of metal
When 1 was speaking to one of the
natives on the economical aspects of the
country the other day he drew my at
tention to Mark i: 20, "And they left
their father Zebedee in the ship with the
hired servants, - etc
"Our forefathers were better to do than
we are, said the old man; none of us
could afford to keep servants. "
Josephus says: tThe Lake Genesaret
contains peculiar specimens of fish, which
differ in taste and form from those Of
other waters' One of the species by him
referred to is the Chromis, popularly
known in this neighborhood as the
Apostle fish. " The legend has it that
| ST. Simon's barks became loaded with
the fish, when the Lord commanded him
to throw out his nets. In single draught
| l landed many species of the genus
| Chromis yesterday An Englishman in
my company recognized one as Chromls
Simons, another as Chromis Andreae. the
| Chromis. iberiadis, aetc., according to the
| classification of the British museum.
| Chromis Simonis is very much like our
carp, with it's sides stove in. He is about
eight inches long with q green brown
back, the belly glittering in blush silver
are situated Immediately behind the
breast fins. Risking second draught 1
took several hundred Chromis Tiberiadis,
| which fish is twice as big as the other
and has eoataof silver green; it's tail is
reddish with green spots.
The Tiberiadis prefers still water and
swarnpish ground; that probably explains
| it's presence in such large numbers in
Lake Genesaret. have eaten this fish
| from Lake Genesaret in Jerusalem and
in Safed in winter time. The natives
send it as far Nazareth in cold weather.
| If the Tiberiadis is caught in the JorA
] dan stream it is as bad as ii 1t were
caught in net The water will carry
him to the Dead sea, and, arriving there,
the fish at once turn on their backs ard
die. The bodies of tens of thousands of
them are daily thrown upon the sand
banks at the mouth OF the Jordan, here
theylfall a prey TO birds Perhaps Ezekiel
referred to this fact when he said (chap-
ter xix, 81, "And will leave thee to be
thrown into the wilderness, thee and all
the fish of thy rivers; thou shalt fall
upon the open fields; thou shalt not be
brought together, nor gathered. I have
given thee for meat to the beasts of the
field and to the fowls of the heaven.
Hemichromis sacra is another apostle
fish in Lake Genesaret Flavius Jospehus
describes it in his book. The speciesiis
quite frequent in the waters of western
and central Africa, but its presence in the
lake is quite extraordinary, as it is found
nowhere else in eastern Africa This fish
is about a foot long, has brown back,
q silvery belly and yellowish green fins.
A very pretty fish, too, is the capoeta,
which grows to be one and half feet
long Its head is dark green, its back
silvery green, its belly yellow. This fish
is "a native of Asia and it is mystery
how it became an inhabitant of Lake
Gen esarets; The European and North
Asiastio fish fuana is represented by
Nemachilus, Aliburnus and Barbus re-
| spectiyely.