Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-09-06
FISH AND OYSTER NOTES

FlSH AND UfSlEk NUlES
sailor named Taylor was wrecked on a
Nhaler-the sea was about to prevail.
When lucky for Taylor the laundering wheler
caught up with slumbering whale.
"In order TO sail her to harbor," said Taylor.
myself I'll avail o. this gale"
So Taylor, the sailor, the sail o. the whaler did
nail DER the head o. the whale. Life.
An ancient French culturist tells
us: I'm the mari the young oyster
finds plenty of food, constant heat
and perfect quiet: whenever there is
mud and sun there will be found the
little molluscs crustacea and swarming
infusoria which are the food of the
oyster. This is the ground in which
they will grow quickest. Now let our
culturist lay this advice to heart. The
Oysterman.
There are three types of green
ness" in oysters, two of which are
perfectly harmless. The third type is
evidently correlated with the presence
of copper: but while the oyster thus
affected is poor in quality, it is not de-
monstrated that he is dangerous. Now
the French oyster lover delights in
eating a green oyster and the culturists
rear this variety in green ponds where
the bivalve only gets an occasional tide
from the sea.
Whether he or any man knows any,
thing about the longevity of fish is an
open question, but here is a statement
in the New York Sun from an old fish
erman and student: Fish never die
a natural death. / mean, of course,
fish in nature never die natural death.
not fish in captivity. And perhaps it
should not be called natural death that
fish in captivity die. Their environment
induces mortality that fish in their
natural habitat would escape, and>these
causes might be properly classed as
among the accidents that carry the cap
tive fish off. If fish in their native
lement were never molested l believee
they would never die. If they had suf-
ficient food, which would be impossible
If they no longer preyed on one another,
there would be no reason for their
dying. 1t was to prevent such uninter-
rupted tenure of life that all fish were
made fiercely predatory, if not remorse-
lessly cannibalistic as many kinds are.
A fish's life is a constantly strenuous
one, and one entirely selfish. A fish
lives only to eat and to avoid being
eaten"
Professor de Esperando, head of the
government college at Caracas, Vene-
zuela, had a hundred average-sized
electric eels captured and copper wire
encircled around their necl1s just below
the ears and then connected them with
a motor, the eels remaining in the river
near the shore. Their violent Topping
and contortions proved most uncer-
tain sort of electric current, so he pro-
cured another hundred and put them
into zinc bath tub which he had in his
house and connected it with the motor
and found that they produced about
twenty horsepower. With this he ran
a mill and lighted up his house and
grounds. The power from each eel
sufficed to produce forty-fve-candle
incandescent lights. Professor de Es-
perando also has found that a motor
car can be run for twenty-four hours
with 100 eels in tank three feet long
and IL feet square, and weighing COM
rIafn lAcc fhoY g,
claimed that the largest ocean steamers
afoat can be run with 100000 cells,
producing 40, O,000-horse-power and con-
tanned in tank not larger than 10 X 10
X Is.
Oyster ''spat" on our seaside grows
in one year to the size between a Gull
and cullentine, as big as the Chesa-
peake when two years old. We had
the finest 'catch" on the seaside last
year. The first strike comes about the
last of July. The first ''catch" is the
best. The catch later does not do so
well. We have three strikes-July,
August and September. Of
tenders of the Virginia Oyster Laws
have kept under cover during the sum-
mer; now there is an activity among
the lawyers. There are a number of
cases that our Board of Fisheries will
prosecute at the proper time. The
Oysterman.
PLANTING TROUT.
The complex situation inIVirginia, arsi-
ing from errors in plating or making
the Baylor survey, may be aptly illus
trated by the following story from the
Youths Companion:
1t was the policy of the officers of a
certain railroad line, in all their adver-
tising matter, to place great stress on
the excellence of the trout-fishing to be
reached by their lines, and in order to
provide the trout, it was necessary from
time to time to plant the advertised
streams with fry.
On one occasion an old gardener
named Conelly, who had charge of the