The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-11
STRANGE ATLANTIC FISH.
Aquatic Specimens That We're
Thought to he Extinct.
From the Boston Transcript.

From the Boston Transcript
Nearly twenty-one years ago. in MAY.
1879, Capt. Kirby Of Gloucester, Mass, in
command of the schooner william ".
Hutchins, was almost directly south of
Nantucket seeking hake and cod, when
his crew commenced to take great num-
bers of "a strange and handsomely col
ored fish" With the conservatism that
marks fishermen, most of these strangers
were thrown overheard, but Capt. Kirby
kept few and cooked them for his own
table He found 1t one of the finest
fishes he had ever eaten, and determined
TO keep all that We're taken thereafter 50
when the schooner game in at Gloucester
II brought some 1900 pounds of the new
fish. Messrs. Friend & Son bought the
lot and disposed of their purchase in va
rous ways. Capt. Kirby sent one of the
fish to the National Museum, where DR.
G. Brown Goode and DR. Tarleton II. Bean
examined Ii and pronounced IL a tile fish,
but a new genus and species. The first
appearance of the new fish, It's delicious
taste and bountiful abundance seemed to
promise a valuable addition to our food
products: and Prof Baird, then United
States Commissioner of Fish and Fisher
les was much interested in this new fac
tor in the resources of the sea.
In 1880 the Fish Commission steamer
Fish Hawk was completed, and the scien-
tifc exploration of the bottom life off our
coasts was begun with. facilities unattain-
able before II was found that the coast
fell away gradually until the water Was
about 100 fathoms deep and then declined
very suddenly. To use Prof. VerriH's
words, the slope beyond the 100-fathom
line Is usually as steep as the side of a
great mountain chain and about as high
as Mt washington" Off the southern
coast of assachusetts this slope is very
near the Gulf stream, and IL has fauna
unsurpassed in the world In scientific In
terest The Gulf stream brings strag-
glers from the tropics and the cold Arctic
currents bring beings whose normal hab-
itat lies in the polar region, and the re-
suit is a naturalists paradise. The tile
fishes belong in warm water, and the Gulf
stream was no doubt responsible for their
being so far North.
For three years the tile fish was a
source of wealth to the fishermen,' and
then a sudden catastrophe befell the in
dustry, the exact nature of which may
never be known. During March and April.
1882 vessels entering New York and other
Atlantic ports reported passing great
numbers Of dead fish on the northern edge
Of the Gulf stream. They proved to be
tile fish, and investigation showed that
they covered an area 40 miles long and
twenty-three miles wide. The fish. COM
mission chartered the schooner Josie
Reeves for an investigating tour. but the
vessel returned without having taken
single specimen This unprecedented des-
truction of animal life attracted wide at
tention among the newspapers and scien-
tific journals, and from the data collected
Capt j. w Collins of the fish commits
sion estimated the number of dead fish at
43S 40 900, a number that would be suf-
ficient to give every man, woman and
child in the country 2SS pounds Of fish,
allowing ten pounds to each fish. Prof
Verrill attributed this destruction to
very severe storm that prevailed at that
time and probably drove the icy cold
water near shore into the area usually
covered by the warm water OF the outer
margin of the Gulf stream. Not a single
Individual seemed to have escaped, and
the tile fish was placed professionally on
the list Of extinct animals.
on Feb. s, 1897, the 78-ton schooner Ma
bel Kenniston was overtaken by a gale
while on Georges Bank and was blown
about 100 miles to the westward. The eX-
act position Is not known, but 1t was
about 14O miles southwest OF No-Man's-
Land, when paddock travis were let
down i'm sixty-hve fathoms of waller
When these were brought in thirty tile
fish, weighing from five to fifteen pounds
each, were taken and were landed in
Gloucester a few days later
In 1898 the fish were taken In consider
able numbers, and in 1899 they were al
most as abundant as ever. many young
snecimens being found. This latter point