The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-03-25


waters is looked forward to with no lit
tie interest by the men aboard her and
the scientific world generally Up to
the present the life teeming seas of the
tropics have been but skinned as il
were by the nets of science. A dip here
and a scoop there have brought to light
many wonderful life forms of the water.
with brilliant colors engendered of tro-
pical sunlight and strange forms whose
awkard symmetry and grotesque
mechanism fitted their surroundings.
, Now a close and thorough investiga-
ton fathOm by fathom, from the sur
face TO the Ooze, will be made and the
specimens preserved, their bodies i'm for
malin and alcohol. their shapes i'm pho
tographic prints and plaster, their char
acteristics in documentary form and
their colOring on canvas and paper.
DR.. c. II. Gilbert of the Leland Stan
ford Junior University, who is in charge
of the present expedition, visits these
waters for the first time and already,
on the way down, the nets brought up
new forms of sea life which kept the
men in the laboratory hard at it CLASH
flying and preserving. The local fish
market yesterday yielded more material
which, if not unknown, was necessary
in the compilation of records.
For the next few months the Alba
tross, working on no fixed schedule, but
TAXING duN dIldBeS Oh changes IN WlnQ
most favorable to the different shores
and channels will patrol the waters Of
the group fixing the location of the va
riOus banks and endeavoTing to esti-
mate the value of the food supply TO be
CLEANED from the neighboring deep.
Local ships that see the Albatross un-
der sail or steam are requested to give
her wide berth so as not to foul the
nets that will be spread i'm her train at
varying depths from three hundred
fathOms surfaCeward. The men aboard
who especially devote their attention to
the fisheries end of the exposition as
opposed to those who take up the pure
ly scientific point of view are A. b.
Alexander II. G. Fassett and F. NJ.
Chamberlain of the United States Fish
Commission. Others on board are DR.. G.
G. Nutting of the University of Iowa
and two men from the Stanford Uuiver-
sity who have taken up this particular
branch of natural science as their spe-
ciaty, j. l.. Snyder and w. r.. Fisher.
These will pack away the specimens in
the jars, photograph them cast them,
paint them and note their characteris-
tics, depth of habitat, food possible
migratory habits and the particular
uses to which their forms have been
modified or distorted.
The problem of the migratory habits
of many fishes caught in colder waters
generally conceded by the scientific
world that many Of the people Of the
fin, as do their overhead brothers and
sisters of the feather, take regular trips
to warmer seas as the birds fly south in
the winter Enormous schools of cod
which are known to periodically desert
the Newfoundland banks, for example,
have been found in the mid-deep feed
ing with avidity leagues away from
their hunting grounds. The hOming in
stinct is as strong apparently with the
denizenS of the water as with the birds
AS with the latter, the place where the
young is brought forth being considered
as home, and always visited at the
breeding season. The old world ques-
tons of Where do the herring and the
cod go toT' viii before long be es-
taDlshed by scientific reseTch which
has already practically established the
fact that the seas as a source of food
supply are in little danger of being de-
populated but rather tend to run to the
other extreme.
These migratory schools Of food fishes
swimming in countless numbers are
thought by some to follow the course Of
the warm currents feeding on the
minutiae Of animal and vegetable life
that breed in the warmer waters, but
present discoveries have not altogether
proved this. Seals annually take long
ocean trips, presumably following the
herring in their Wanderings always re-
turning to the land of bergs and foes
when the time comes to increase their
herds.
The theory of the migratory fishes
following the warmer currents and
feeding on each other as they go from
large to small, ad inhnitum, will be of
wonderful value to the worlds econo-
mics when the data is all gathered in,
If the fact can be established.
Such expeditions as this one of the AL
batross, while classifying the fishes OF
the world help to establish such theories
while adding links to the chain of lore
that will some day make the geOlogies
and Biographies of the future an open
book of the worlds age, formation and
the evolution of its lord and master
Man The yarns of the sea serpent, the
tales of prehistoric antediluvian mon
sters still existent in deep sea caverns
will all i'm time be exploded or proven
The mystery that allows the frail bodies
of deep sea fishes to resist the pressure
of tons of water that reduce the strong
est fabric made by man to pulp viii
some day be made manifest and new
forces established and put to other uses (
on a recent scientific expedition of a
similar character to the one on which |
the AlbatrOss is employed, the sailors .
who evolve many wonderful forecastle
lItbi les rum tine Straps Ola llllOl MA ton
overheard from the laboratories, asked /
the chief of the expedition what would /.
become of the BODY of one Of them, F..
given a deep sea burial. One Of the F.
higher petty officers a man of consider |
able education advanced the theory, |
commonly accepted for sinking bodies F.
hat the corpse would sink until It found |
the level where pressures We're equal F.
and there float until the elements gra- |
dually absorbed it. The chief explain |
ed to them how the corpse would sink /
with the weight attached to the ham, |
mock, the sailors shroud, until the ir- |
resistible pressure of the water crushed (
1t to a shapeless unrecOgnisable mass, |
thereby SCATTERING the resurrection day /
hopes of many of the tackles, who cogi- |
tated deeply how the dead could arise |
from Davy Jones locker i'm any respect /
able shape under such conditions.
1t is only Of late years that ambergrls, |
that prize Of a whaling voyage, was .
discovered to be a fatty disease of a |
whales intestines. Stories telling OF .