The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1900-02-21
A THRILLING SIGHT.
CATCHING AND KILLING THE NOM
"a sTER FUNNY FISH. 79ad

sIashed TO Death with Spears.
One of the most thrilling and won
derful sights In the world is that OF the
| funny fisheries Of the Mediterranean
sea. The pursuit of these great and
swift fishes Is not mere tame operation
of netting. 1t is a fight between man
and sea creatures such as Is duplicated
nowhere except In the whale fisheries.
The funny is a huge mackerel. He is a
predaceous fish, and his course through
! the seas is that of a destroyer without
| parallel. So deadly is the funny to the
schools Of herring and similar food
fishes that he is called the herring hog.
In our waters he Is known more gen.
| orally as the horse mackereL ........
The funny fisheries are distinctly Eu-
ropean, and they are the Oldest indus
try that is known In the Mediterranean
sea- To capture them men must band
! themselves together In large bodies,
for fishermen singly could do nothing
with these fishes, which grow 20 length
of ten feet and weigh over half a ton
sometimes. Therefore there is sys-
tenn of cooperation on the coasts that
are visited by the funny, a system
| which dates back TO the Phenicians,
who were great funny catchers in their
time. a .....s..g ..l ...
The perfection of this system is due,
among other things, to the fact that
| the big fishes have absolutely regular
habits. In normal times they can be
relied on to make their appearance at
certain periods almost to the minute
When they come. 1t is In huge schools
| that can be seen afar, for they scour
the waters like ships OF war, and the
leaplngs of their prey and the leapings
of their own bulky bodies beat the
! deep into white foam and lather. ls.1
Since they are SO exact in their hab-
its, the fishermen prepare for them al
ways before they arrive. At some des-
| ignated spot are spread enormous nets,
exceedingly deep aud made Of the
strongest of line. These are not de-
| signed to catch the tunnies. They are
| spread out merely to force the fishes to
edge In and In until they are led TO the
real prison net, which is a vast con-
| trivance set In an immense square and
powerful enough to defy anything that
swims. .:...... .,...-....... .....-
AS soon as the last OF the school has
entered this boxlike Enclosure the sides
OF the great net are raised at a signal.
At first the imprisoned fishes do not
show any signs Of alarm, but as the
net rises, inch by inch, from the water
depths cleaning, swordllke backs ap-
pear here and there above the surface,
darting with incredible swiftness from
side to side OF the net. Each instant
more of these living blades appear
above the surface, II .-.l.. ..,..
Then the fishes begin to leap. Here
one launches himself straight out Of the
water-a00o pounds OF glorious llfe-to-
ward the sky, to crash back into the
sea with a naillike blow, Of sides and
| tail that makes the ocean echo. An
other and another rises and falls back.
Soon the scene is as II the sbysses OF
the sea were spoutlng their lBhabit-
ants, for hundreds of immense silver
! flashing fishes rise everywhere at once
within the net shHhse ,1ssle - IL
81, But now a M new element enters.
Long, narrow fishing boats push into
the Enclosure. In them stand brown
men with lances and spears ana big
knives hshed 10 poles Then begins a
tight that is terrible to see. The men
thrust madly into the struggling mass
es OF fishes. The fishes leap and roll and
dive and leap again. lhammering the
sea with tails that churn like the
screws of steamships and whiten the
waves with foam, Before many, min
utes boats, and men are drenched with
bloody water. The surface of the
ocean is red. p ID Out or the smoking
spray peer faces now md then that are
dabbledv with blood, TIL they look
scarcely human, 4,r,. ...,,,4., y n
Now and then a man slips and falls
among the harried fishes. Then there
are loud screams from his companions
and cries Of supplcation from him as
he calls to, his patron saint, for 1t Is no
joke to fall among those mighty bodies
that are dashing around in their deatbp
throes.
~ so the light continues till In that In
closed space of sea 'thereiis not q fish
alive. Every boat is half full of. water
and loaded down with living silver.
Where the slim, piratlcal bodies OF the
Beautiful fisfies iie.s The inhabitants OF
the towns near the scene Of THIS fishing
make p fete day of the. aErlEal Of the
funny, for IT, means, food and employ;
ment for many hundreds or men, woIp-
en- and children. The fisR Is a fav6rite
Iarticlei az ,fOod2 especially saited,
and the roe Is a. great. deiieseH, (which
brings .fagayuprlcess The tunnles that
are caught off the Italian coasts have
to bS sphssed' THOUGH the eustbnt house
%htnr tHet aAred fffftlet, Hike any other
-niefchaRdlse. ana the streetslthefeS pre-
sent a strange appearance them 6or,on
I'll sides are ,NbeeIIbqFFFow s fpll Of Ahe
{h2 .I ,. PfSfp7St50AS oGFqHfpESsssswVNssB
u 6f6 Va6T .Gzad-,Eaa al Ia 2Ji6t y Cd
There is no bstti'f medicine fup Hth esbal
hitpthan Chmnberlaibls UoIfoh Remedy.
Sss Iuls assritq astsahdt 1ramptcand s4ifsc'
l...l o..f q, Ga ,.,iffI t,aiha