River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-07-23
QUEER DENIzEN Of THE DEEP.
The Angler Fish, Terror to It's Kind
ana a SkillfuI Competitor of
Fishermen.

Down at the aquarium is fish wi.n
a history, says the New York CONNER
cial Advertiser. Nearly everything
has history to be known. This par
ticular fish has a history in general
way-that is, in company with thu
other fishes of its kind. 1T enjoys the
distinction of being the ugliest fish
without exception in the whole aquari-
um, and apparently it is proud of this
distinction, for as one of the occu-
pants of one of the large floor tanks,
in company with two score other salt
water fishes, it reigns monarch of all
it surveys. The fish is known as the
angler, goosefish, allmouth and half
a hundred other names, each con-
tributed from some locality where the
fish is found The fish is nearly all
mouth-in fact, two7thirds of its body
is composed of a. pair of mammoth
jaws and cavenous mouth that will
take in fish weighing one-third as
much as the fish itself.
When the aquarium was first
started one of these fishes, weighing
nearly 80 pounds, was kept in one of
the side tanks. He had been in there
some time when another specimen was
captured and brought to the aquarium.
The newcomer was smaller than the
one already there by ten pounds. He
was placed in the tank with the larger
fish, who, installing him for his regu-
lar daily meal, made a dash for him,
and when the smaller fish was rescued
by the attendant there was only his
head sticking out of the mouth of the
big fish. Up to short time ago there
were two of these ungainly looking
fishes at the aquarium. One of them.
shortly after his arrival, whether
made i'll by his sea voyage thither or
not will never be known, disgorged
a fve-pound shad. The shad was not
devoured in the aquarium, either, but
had been captured by the angler be-
fore the captor himself was taken.
Closely associated with soup are
these same anglers, only they general
ly masquerade under some special
name, according to the locality.
Down on the sand dune coast of Rhode
Island the great brown, notified angler
is known as the bellows" fish, and
once day or as often as a haul is
made the fish is sworn at by every one,
from the captain of the fishing gang
to the cook. Along the entire coast
of the state at frequent intervals are
weather-beaten shacks or fishing
camps.
These have nearly all been given up
during the past five years, Before
that, when the first cowslips would be
blossoming in the woods on shore, a
rakish, swift-sailing sloop would glide
along the coast until it came to it's
particular camp. Here it would send
the camping crew ashore, consisting of
eight or ten men, with provisions
enough to last six weeks Then the
pile driver would be brought out from
the nearest trackway and the huge
piles driven. extending a mile and a
quarter off shore. A giant seine was
set to these posts and at the other END
was built trap in which the fish were
caught.
This happens sometimes now, but
not so frequently as formerly. Each
day when the tide is at the top of the
flood the net or pound is hauled, the
| fish pressed into a smaller net and
warped alongside the sloop, which
comes down the coast every morning
from the nearest available shipping
point to New York.
The purse net when gathered up
close to the sloop and holding captive
some $50 barrels of shining, silvery,
splashing soup, is a glorious sight, and
when a good haul is made, the sun
tanned, agile fishermen shout and sing
to one another across the blue water
in seeming madness. The fishermen
fish on shares and the bigger the haul
the more money.
When the bailing and sorting out be-
gins fully one-third of the crew, each
man supplied with a stout gaf1ing
hook, attend to the bellows fish. Ruth
lessly and with malice aforethought,
they catch the sharp gaffing hook UNI
der the jaw of the bellows fish and
with foothold pull and jerk and wal
lop him around until he disgorges the
half a barrel of soup he may have in
his gigantic nav. Then he is stabbed
and poked and mercilessly murdered
and thrown overheard outside the
net, where his life blood tinges the
clear blue sea water. and when the tide
makes food he is left high on the
sandy beach, where the gulls pick his
bones to the last shred.