The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-01-23
A STRANGE VISITATION.
,rAc waters OF NarrREsnAett nay
Turn Red as Mood and the
Fish Die.

Fish Die.
That part of Narragansett bay
which lies north of Prudence island is
shaped very much like wedge. The
base, to the southwark, is about four
or five miles wide, and its length, up
to Providence, is from ten to twelve
miles. This particular branch of the
main bay is sometimes called Provi-
dence river. but whatever its name,
the dimensions remain unchanged.
There are at least 80 square miles in
this one area, and if Greenwich bay,
off to the southeast, and portions OF
Seekonk river which runs into the bay
at Providence, be counted, the extent
of the water to which this story relates
was not whit less than 40 square
miles.
In the latter part of August and ear
ly in September, this year, it was no
ticed that the waters of Providence and
Seekonk rivers were thick and red.
They emitted an Offensive odor, which
at length became almost intolerable.
some ODSeTNeTs utScIIpSu thS SoioA u"
chocolate"
The most remarkable phase of the
situation was not noticed until Sep
tember s, 0 and 10. Thousands of dead
fish. crabs and cells were found in wind
rows along the beaches. Boatmen
could see such marine creatures as blue
crabs, menhaden, tautog and fathsh
come to the surface of the water and
betray uneasiness, as if they wished to
escape from the element in which they
were immersed Often they would come
| to the very shore in their efforts to
avoid the noxious influence to which
they were subjected. Indeed says
| Prof. Mead, of Brown university, the
! shrimp and eels were actually OBJ
/ served TO climb out of the water upon
, stakes and buoys and even upon the
iron cylinders which support the
bridges, and which must have been very
/ hot. In several instances on Septem-
Der s and hundreds of blue crabs
were caught by single individual in
n few minutes time at the mouth OF
The Seekonk." And on the following
day hardly live crab or shrimp could
be found anywhere within the region
indicated.
] One theory offered, and which seems
/ to be plausible, is based on the discov-
= ery that the water derived its hue from
the presence of an astonishing num-
Der OF minute living organisms. These
were ruddy or brown, and were so
abundant as to render the sea opaque
at depth of only six inches. These
creatures were found in the Seekonk
only when the tide carried them up,
but they swarmed in the bay at all
times for days. Immediately after the
wholesale determination of life here
mentioned the organisms themselves
grew scarcer, but they again increased
in abundance until September 23, when
a heavy rainstorrn seemed to purify the
water to a great extent. Even as late
as the middle of October few OF them
could i've detected in the bay.
Several instances of the sea being col
ored red in other parts OF the globe are
cited by Prof. Mead. In one, near Bonn
bay. the alleged cause was the presence
in the ocean of a species of peridinium,
which Carter named the sanguineum
because its hue resembled that OF
blood. Darwin's description of animal
cules that impart red tint to the sea
south of Valparaiso is also declared to
accord with the characteristics of the
'peridinium. The Brown university nat
uralist suggests that perhaps the or
eanisms which give to the Red sea its
hue and name and those that turned
the sea red near Iceland in 1649 are
identical with the visitor to Providence
river. II. j. Carter, who wrote up the
Bombay case at considerable length
called attention to the seeming par
allel between the observed phenome
non and one Of the plaques of the time
Of Moses:
And al the waters that were in th'
river were turned to blood" And th'
fish that was in the river died, and th'
river stank, and the Egyptians coule
not drink of the water of the river
and there was blood throughout Il tn
land of Egypt "-Chicaee Inter Ocean