The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-08-12

| root, but he catches the water, hangs | suspended for a moment, and then
 With miraculous strength forces his way up and reaches the quiet water beyond.
 Perhaps the next waterfall is five
 feet higher, and the salmon leaps in
 vain. Then, finding the feat impossi-
 ble, he actually climbs the sides, jump
 ing up from ledge to ledge and resting
 In little pools until the river above is | reached Then he goes on pushing through rapids and foundering oyer | shadows until the spawning ground is | reached. In many of the larger rivers | of this continent the salmon is no beauty when he reaches his journeys end. His scales, perhaps, are worn off, his fins torn and his body is mass of bruises. But nevertheless he wooes his
 ladylove boldly, caresses her tenderly, fights his rivals fiercely and wins his bride like a soldier.
 But all fish are not so romantic. The codfish, for instance, is unsentimental and actually ridiculous. He is great, gray, ugly fish, and his name itself is absurd. If there were such thing as submarine humor he would figure in it as the goat does in our own comics. The codfish has, in fact, an appetite
 Which makes the goats look pale, and
 when fishermen cut the fish open they
 assert that they often find such things
 as scissors, suspender buckles, horse-
 shoes, potato parings, oil cans, door
 knobs, marlin spikes corn cobs and
 India rubber shoes.
 Another startling story told by fisher-
 men is that in heavy weather codfish
 eat stones to ballast them. but it is
 more likely that these rocks are taken
 in while attached to sea anemones, of
 which the codfish are very fond. It
 may be inferred that codfish do not ob-'
 ject to nibble the fingers or hands of
 human beings, because the wedding
 ring of a drowned woman was once
 found in a cod's stomach and the fin
 der got G50 reward for its return
 Oysters and clans in the shell are very popular with the codfish, and there are vast heaps of dead shells in the ocean, 'nested" togeteher like straw berry boxes, which are believed to have once been in the stomachs of codfish. The appetites of these fieh arc insatia
 ble. They will fill their stomachs. fill their gullets and fill their mouths with food and still try to get more.
 If people knew more about the fish they eat it is possible that a slice of
 baked blue might fill many a man with shuddering horror, for the blue- fish is perhaps the most terrible and bloodthirsty thing in all nature. The tiger has a sweet and cheerful disposi- 1 ton compared to the bluefsh, the shark seems a phlegmatic and amiable- 1 ble creature, and the wolf by com parison, is positively mild. The blue l fish make menhaden their especial prey. | When school of these fish perceive | blueish near they swim away with | such terrific haste that the ocean foams | under them, but the bluefish cannot be | distauced. They rush among the help | less menhaden biting tearing, thrash | ing and even throwing them into the air. |
 They do not stop to swallow their | prey, but kill purely for the love of | 
 The sea is reddened with blood and dot i ted with dead fish but bluefish kill on until exhaustion stops them or until the nenHauen get lulO SuCH SHdilOW water that the bluefsh do not care to follow Sometimes these helpless fish are so blind with terror that they swim ashore and are piled up in windrows foot deep.
 The bluetish do not eat one-tenth of the fish they kill although when sur feited they are believed by some people to disgorge their food in order to take in another meal. It Is estimated that during a fair season 1,00000O bluefish are caught between New Jersey and Monomoy, and that about 1000, 900 re- main uncaught Thirty or forty fish are sometimes found in the stomach of one bluetish, but placing bluefsh's Kill at only ten per day it will be seen hat during their four months yearly stay on the New England coast they iestroy about 100000 900, 100000 fish md that is excluding the vast numbers # minute fish eaten by little bluefish which are not included in the estimate Carried into avoirduoois it is calcu- ated that 2,5oo, 100000 pounds of fish are ,aten daily by bluefish. Nevertheless hey are handsome and graceful fish Very little is known of their other hab- ts, but they are so nervous while in captivity that they develop corns on heir noses by trying to push the latter trough the glass sides Of their tanks. Los Angeles Times.