Evening star., 1899-07-29
Thg TlLEFIsa

a few years ago. 1t was in 1878 that the
fishing schooner Hutchings, trying with
travis for hake in new waters 100 miles
south of Nantucket, took thousands of
pounds of a fish up to that time unknown.
The fish was very handsome, with cleaning
metallic scales. yellow SDeckies and an odd
looking 1eshy fin that stood up on the top
of its dolphin-like head. The specimens
taken weighed from five to fifty pounds,
aEd a trial of them proved that they were
extremely good to eat.
Dead Fish by the Million.
The fish commission experts declared the
fish new species. and an investigation was
proposed, but before it could be carried out
dreadful catastrophe occurred. In March
and April, 1882, vessels arriving at Boston,
New York and Philadelphia reported that
they had passed through hundreds of miles
of dead and dying fishes of an unfamiliar
kind floating on the surface of the sea.
These, as it proved, were tile fish, and the
evidence gathered on the subject showed
. that at least 800 square miles OF ocean
were strewn thickly with scaIy victims,
numbering at least one thousand millions
enough to feed the entire population of the
United States for two months.
Thus passed the tile fish, the whole
species being apparently wiped out by a
mysterious and wholesale calamity. But
subsequent investiga ton has made it pretty
clear that the catastrophe was caused by
an intrusion of frigid water upon the tropi-
cal strip. Running southward on the shore
ward side of it, as already explained, is an
arctic current from Labrador, which dur
ing this fateful season carried much more
cold water than ordinarily, possibly be-
cause of the presence of unusual quantities
of floating ice in the North Atlantic. The
cold stream pushed away the warm stream
from the continental slope, ana 1foZe the
tile fish to death.
As Good as the Goldfish.
1t was feared that the tile fish had been
h,tr tan lnfa n
1892 the fish commission steamer Grampus
caught eight specimens in the belt, and
there was great rejoicing. Since then the
species has multiplied fast along the strip,
and Dr. Bumpus is confident that large
numbers will be taken by his expedition.
The tile is rapid breeder, and has few en-
emies to fear, being large and fierce. 1t
bites greedily at any kind OF bait, and there
is every prospect that before long it will
become a valuable commercial food fish,
When the species is restored to its former
status numerically, it can be captured in as
great quantities as the cod and good judges
assert that it is decidedly superior to the
latter for table purposes. Furthermore, the
fishing grounds being only sixty miles out,
there will be no trouble in fetching the tiles
fresh to market, The fish feeds on the
crustaceans which swim on the bottom,
and its stomach is'usuaily found filled with
shrimps and sea spiders.
The temperature of the marine belt which
furnished the marine wonderland described
is not high, but it remains at about the
same point-52 degrees-all the year around.
The. strip continues assouthward to the
straits of Florida and beyond. Opposite
Cape Hatteras it is very narrow, owing to
the abruptness ofIthe slope along that part
of the coast. while, for an opposite reason,
1t spreads out over wide area on the Car
olinas The suppositiol,is is that the tile fish
occupy the belt through all of its length,
though this remains to be proved, and that
the northern part of the strip was repopu-
lated with them from the southern portion
which was unaffected by the disaster above
referred to.
Some years ago Prof. Verrill of Yale Uni
Versity dredged in the strip and secured
species of the sea-urchin family, seventy
species of fishes, sixtyfive species of sea-
worms and two hundred and sixty species
or moliusks. Many of these were entirely
new to science.