The Portland daily press., 1900-10-06
SAVAGE BLUEFISR.
These Feroeious Marine Butchers
Eat Nearly Half Their own Weight
Daily and When GOrged XIII Their
Prey For Pure Sport.

Eat Nearly Half Their own Weight
Daily and When GOrged XIII Their
Prey For Pure Sport.
The opinions which are current regard
ing the bluefsh are usually formed in
one Of two ways. A long and pleasant
acquaintance may be based on expert
ence at the table. But this, after all, af-
fords only limited insight into the sub
| ject. Again, a man may, with wet and
abraded fingers, haul in a five or six
FOUNDER until the latter is within dozen
feet Of the boat and then see the agile
and glistening creature jump out Of the
water, throw the hook from his mouth
and return to the shades Of private life.
If line that has a fisherman at one end
and a bluefsh at the other is not pulled
/ in rapidly enough to stay taut the con-
: sequences just suggested are likely to en-
sue, and a vivid but exasperating exhibit
ton of a bluefsh's pluck and agility will
be afforded After all, though, nothing
like a symmetrical and complete estimate
of the character Of a bluefsh can be
reached without an intimate knowledge
Of his private habits.
In spite Of the favor with which this
beautiful and spirited creature is gener-
ally regarded, those who have had a good
chance to study him tell awful tales Of
his ferocity. The pike and shark enjoy
rather undesirable regulations in this re-
spect But a rigid and strictly judicial
investigation Of the facts warrants a sus-
picion that the bluefsh outranks them
both in sheer cruelty. Sharks are greedy
and unprincipled enough, heaven knows.
But it can at least be said in their behalf
that they eat what they kill and are not
given to slaughter out Of pure "cussed-
ness" The bluefsh, on the contrary,
slays just for the fun of the thing. When
he Oyertakes a school of menhaden, he
attacks one after another in rapid sue
cessiOn. Some of them he swallows
whole. Others he merely lacerates. The
fact that he had what is POLITICALLY called
a square meal only 10 minutes before
puts no restraint on his murderous pro-
pensities He snaps at the nearest moss
banker, takes a small mOrsel out of his
unfortunate victim and leaves the man
gled remains floating in the water for
the sea gulls. The latter haunt the
neighborhood Of a band of marauding
bluefsh on this account and thus give to
the practiced fisherman a free tip regard
ing the whereabouts of his prey.
The gull is a side issue, though. The
main question is the fish and his extraor-
dinary capacity. There is a limit, to be
sure, to the capacity Of the bluefsh's
stomach. And when that organ is filed
he can't well stow away anything more
there. All the same, he goes on playing
HerOd with the innocents that come
within his reach. The finding of rem
nants of menhaden and other small fish
In the water near a school Of bluefsh has
gl7en rise to the notion that, after hay
ing eaten all he can accommodate, the
latter will disgOrge, preparatory to fresh
Onslaughts. But considerable doubt at
taches-to the theory. 1t seems to be
merely an inference from the debris
found in the water near a school of blue
fish. No one reports having witnessed
the election of food from a fish's mouth.
The number of bluefsh taken off the
Jersey and Long Island coasts during
single season has been put up by a
writer in The Fishing Gazette at 1,0OO,-
600 and he makes this only per cent Of
the total number sWarming in the wa
ters. He then expresses the opinion that
no less than 2,500,000,00O pounds of
menhaden are eaten by bluefsh daily, OF
about 2l2 ponds to a bluefsh. If these
figures are even approximately correct,
the bluefsh eats from a quarter to half
his own weight in the course of a hours.
1t is impossible to find a parallel for this
voracity among land carniyora. More
than a dozen mossbankers have been
found in the stomach Of q bluefsh. But
on the theory that he only ate ten a day
during a season of ten days the whole
billion bluefsh on the coast would get
away with an appalling number Of men
haden in a season of four months. Such
a calculation emphasizes not only the de-
structiveness of the bIuefsh, but also the
astonishing fecundity of his victims,
which can endure that havoc without any
apparent diminution.
They do say, however, that the blue
fish will seek to avenge himself on his
human enemy if the opportunity offers.
Not only will he bite fercely while being
removed from a fshhook, but he will ac-
tually attack a man in the water. If
the following narrative had originated
with fisherman, one might be excused
for entertaining misgivings as to it's
truthfulness, but the narrator is a sub
marine diver, and whoever knew a sub
Aud111S UlA el " QGJdIL ludu ulU
George Washington from strict facts? So
there is no discounting this story. Once
upon a time, says the diver, he was en-
tirely submerged and was engaged in ad-
justing some hosting apparatus to a
sunlzen wreck. Along came a big blue
fish, which, in a spirit of pure deviltry,
snapped at the mans bare hand. Its
teeth came together like the jaws Of a
railway conductors punch on a commut-
er's ticket The diver tried to withdraw
the imprisoned member, but in doing so
mangled it sadly. 1t thus appears that
blueGsh does not confne his merciless at
tentions to mOssbankers and such and
has no reverence for the gifted creature
which stands at the head Of the animal
creation. A man cannot be too careful,
therefore, about controlling the condi-
tions under which he meets this blood
thirsty denizen Of the deep.-New York
Post.
Now They May Speak.
The children of a Maine lawyer were
never allowed to speak to him when en-
kering his Office until he stoned his work