The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-31

pages of finely-printed questions to be
answered. The applicant took il and
looked over it in a hopeless way. 1t
not only required him to give his life
history and his family history, but
required story of his employment
with his last five employers and had
blanks for the names and addresses of
nVe persons who could substantiate all
that he said about himself. Then it
wound up with a blank medical history
OF the applicant, in which he was ex-
pected to state all the ills that he had
ever had and especially to tell whether
ne had ever been afflicted with any
one or a long list of enumerated all
ments. He must tell among other
things whether he has ever had fits,
whether he wears glasses, whether he
ever suffered from nervous exhaustion
and whether he ever suffered from
sunstroke.
After the applicant had looked this
formidable document over a few times
he passed it to the member of Con-
gress, who also went over it, and fin
ally said
why, I could not fill that cut my
self. Come on, John; think we had
better get you place as a street car
conductor. Keeping track of the fares
on three-car train on a holiday
would be easier than filling up that
blank
After having been, in 1889, placed by
the National Museum Professionally on
the list of extinct fishes, the tilefish
has reappeared off the Southern New
England coast in such numbers that
the United States Fish Commission
mas issued special bulletin directing
attention to this species of fish, in the
hope that fishermen will visit the tile
fishing grounds and the markets of
the United States will be plentifully
supplied with what is regarded as one
of the best saltwater fishes in the
world
The history of the tilefsh is an in
teresting one. AS far as is known by
the officials of the Fish Commission,
they were never caught in large guam
titles before the year 1879, when Capt.
Kirby of Gloucester, in command of
the schooner William V. Hutchins, was
nShing for cod and made large catch
of this fish, which was entirely new
to him. He threw most of his first
haul away, but, having cooked sCAle
of them aboard the schooner, he found
them so good that he continued to fish
for them, and caught about 1000
pounds, which he sold
A few of the tilefish were caught
from time to time after this, but in
AiebANA anu <APAlID loOHy Vessels dTrlV-
ing at Atlantic ports of the United
States reported having passed through
millions of dead tilefish floating on the
surface of the ocean. From the num-
Der of dead fish reported and the ex-
tent of the region over which they al
most covered the surface of the wa
ter, Capt. j. w. Collins of the Fish
Commission, estimated that at least
billion and half of the fish had
persisted.
Repeated efforts were made year af-
ter year by the Fish Commission to
find the tilefish, but without success,
and in 1889 it was concluded that the
species had become extinct. A careful
investigation showed that during the
winter, when so many of the fish were
killed very unusual conditions had
prevailed in the part of the ocean they
had frequented. They are a semi
tropical fish and could only live as far
north as the New England coast in
the warm waters of the Gulf stream
That year, however, an unusually Sc
we're and prolonged storm had driven
the cold waters from near the coast
into the Cuff stream; had pushed that
stream further to the eastward, and
mad mixed it with the cold waters to
such an extent that the tilefiSh could
not live in it.
1t is believed by the Fish Commits
sion that some of the fish must have
escaped, and must have multiplied
with great rapidity or that they must
have emigrated from warmer waters
further south. for, once more, the wa
ters on their old feeding grounds are
full of them, and the New England
fishermen have an opportunity to take
large hauls of them and to supply the
markets of the country with great
| delicacy in the way of sea food.