The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1900-01-30
A THRILLING SIGHT.
CATCHING AND KILLING THE MON
sTER FUNNY FISH.

They Are F1rst Driven Into Enor-
moua Nets In the Mediterranean
Sea and Are Then Stabbed and
slashed 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 huge mackerel. He Is
predaceous fish, and his course through
the seas is that of 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 toa length
of ten feet and weigh over half ton
sometimes. Therefore there is sys-
TEN of cooperation on the coasts that
are visited by the funny, system
which dates back to the Phoenicians,
who were great funny catchers in their
time.
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, it Is In huge schools
that can be seen afar. for they scour
the waters like ships of war, and the
Ieapings of their prey and the leapings
of their own bulky bodies beat the
deep into white foam and Iather.
Since they are so exact In their hab-
it's, the fishermen prepare for them al
ways before they arrive. At some des-
ignated spot are spread enormous nets,
exceedingly deep and 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 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, swordlike 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.
Then the fishes begin to leap. Here
| one launches himself straight out of the
water-500 pounds of glorious life-to-
ward the sky, to crash back into the
sea with a fiaillike blow of sides and
tail that makes the ocean echo. An
other and another rises and falls back.
| Soon the scene Is as If the abysses OF
the sea were spouting their inhabit-
ants, for hundreds of immense silver
| flashing fishes rise everywhere at once
| within the net.
But now a new element enters.
Long, narrow fishing boats push into
the Enclosure. In them stand brown
men with lances and spears and big
knives dashed to poles. Then begins a
| fight 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, hammering 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. Out of the smoking
spray peer faces now and then that are
| dabbled with blood till they look
scarcely human.
| Now and then man slips and falls
among the harried fishes. Then there
are loud screams from his companions
and cries Of supplication from him as
he calls to his patron saint, for it is no
joke to fall among those mighty bodies
that are dashing around in their death
| throes.
So the fight continues till in that in
closed space of sea there is not fish
alive. Every boat is half full of water
and loaded down with living silver,
where the slim, piratical bodies Of the
beautiful fishes lie. The inhabitants Of
the towns near the scene of this fishing
make a fete day of the arrival Of the
funny, for it means food and employ
ment for many hundreds of men. wom-
en- and children. The fish is favorite
article of food, especially when sailed.
! and the roe is a great delicaey, which
brings fancy prices. The tunnles that
are caught off the Italian coasts have
to be passed through the custom house
when they are landed, like any other
merchandise, and the streets there pre-
sent strange appearance then, for on
all sides are wheelbarrows full Of the
shapely. monstrous creatures.-New
York Press.