Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-05


abolition. Final consideration of the
measure has been postponed until
the bill can be revised by a special
committee of five. When it is re
ported back it VIII be made IA spe'
cial order of business until definite
ly disposed of.
ing banks and between the banks.
A bank is a submerged plateau. The
ocean in most places is of great
depth, but in other places the bot
tom rises up in the form of noun
tain or plateau to within a com
paratively short distance from the
surface. The fish usually stay in
the waters over these banks eX-
cepting when they are going from
one to another.
The Georges bank and the Grand
banks are the principal haunts of
the cod, and to these fishing
grounds the fleets from the New
England ports annually sail. They
remain at sea until they catch
enough fish to fill their holds. On
some occasions, for unaccountable
reasons, the fish are scarce, and time
is lost, the ships riding at anchor
days on end and using up provisions
These expensive intervals, it is
hoped, will be avoided as a result
of the facts ascertained from the
government experiments.
The government already has done
much to aid the fishermen. The
radio is employed to a substantial
extent. When schools of fish are
sighted and reported as moving in
any given direction, the news is
flashed to the fleets, and they up
anchor and sail to intercept them
with their capaciouS nets.
A part of the study of fish doubt
less will include the ocean currents,
one of the most fascinating of scien-
tific subjects. Fish sleep just like
other creatures and drift with the
of studying them is the launching
of bottles, tightly corked, so that
they will float indefinitely. In 1918
a number of bottles were set afloat
in the Bay of Fundy. The United
States weather bureau co-Operated
in the work of tracing them, and
compiling the data adduced.
The bottles have been picked up
from time to time, the weather bu-
reau within the last few days hav-
ing reported on four new bottles of
the 1919 lot. No. 1913 was found on
the island of Flores, in the Azores,
on August s, 1920. AS the Bay of
Fundy is on the Canadian coast this
means that this bottle nearly crossed
the Atlantic. No. $50 was picked
up on the island of Papa Westray,
in the Orkneys, January 81, 1921.
No. SO was picked up at Dyffyrn,
North Wales. on March %, 1921, and
No. 129 was found two miles from
land at the Bohle-W alstation, Soro,
Westfinmark, in Norway, on July
Is, 1921. The weather bureau has
figured that these bottles must have
travelled respectively, 1000 miles,
$500 miles, 1900 miles and $500
miles in respective times of II
months, II months, 10 months and
% months. A calculation shows that
the bottles Travelled between five and
six geographical miles per day.
The tagging of fish is a new sci
ence, but there is at least one very
interesting case of fish which was
identified and known to many peo-
pie. In the time of the Emperor
Justinian, of Rome, a whale strayed
into the Mediterranean sea. 1t was
about so feet long-not a tremen-
dous whale as whales go in the
North Atlantic-but the biggest fish
ever seen in the Mediterranean. 1t
capsized many of the small ships of
that early time, and was regarded as
a sea monster of unimaginable ter
ror. 1t became so we'll known to
mariners and, by report, to the peo-
pie of the cities, that it was given
q name. Porphyrio, it was called,
and every time a ship set sail, the
sailors prayed to the pagan gods to
be kept from the lashing tail of
Porphyrio. The whale lived so years
in the Mediterranean, and finally be-
came stranded on the sands at the
mouth of the Sanagaris river. in Asia
Minor, where it either was killed or
died at low tide,
The fisheries bureau does not eX-
pect to tag any whales. but if any
reader of the Haskin letter finds a
denizen of the deep with a little
metal tag on it, Uncle Sam will ap-
preciate it if he will send the tag, a
few scales and the data about where
and when the fish was caught to the
bureau of fisheries, department Of