The Days of a Ma?i 1900 



little fishes. Among them we found the young of 



several tropical forms swept up from farther south by 



the Kuro Shio. One basin, 30 by 20, and 10 feet deep, 



was the most beautiful aquarium I ever saw, and only 



the rising tide drove us back to Misaki. 



"Old To Joga during feudal times old women were ban- 



LadieS ished when no longer socially useful: a mountain 



Homes . , J 



station near Karuizawa, 1 may add, was once set 

 apart for the same pious purpose! 



During the afternoon I visited the fishermen's 

 wharf, finding there a varied assortment which in- 

 cluded many tunnies - - among them "leaping tunas" 

 and yellow-fin albacore very like those of Santa 

 Catalina Island. Most notable of the large forms 

 were two new species of spearfish, one of which I 

 later found to be rather common about Catalina, 

 where anglers call it the "marlinspike fish." 1 Both 

 forms were over twenty feet long, and as I set about 

 to measure them accurately the men looked very 

 doubtful, fearing some untoward result from my 

 incomprehensible incantations. 



The in- Kuma now brought in the biggest hook-and-line 

 rawf 2 " ca tch m the whole history of science, including nu- 

 fisherman merous kinds hitherto known only from deep-sea 

 dredging in the same waters by the British research 

 steamer, Challenger. One new thing was a diminu- 

 tive, jet-black shark - - a foot long - - with luminous 

 patches on the side; this I called Etmopterus lucifer. 

 (The following year Peter Schmidt, a Russian natu- 

 ralist who was visiting Misaki, made a drawing of a 

 live specimen by the light the fish itself gave out in 

 the dark.) Big crimson and purple rock cod crowded 

 the wharf. As I went at these eagerly, Kuma ex- 



1 Named by me Tetrapturus mitsukurii. 



n 78 n 



