Nov. 1, 1S66.] 



IIARDTTICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



211 



THE VIYIPAKOIJS FISH. 



(DITREMA ARGENTEUM.) 



E are so accustomed 

 to associate the pro- 

 duction of young 

 fishes with eggs 

 and milt — familiar 

 to all as bard and 

 soft roe in the 

 cured herring or 

 " berries " in the 

 salmon, — that it is difficult to 

 believe in the existence of a 

 fish bringing forth live young, 

 as do dogs, cats, rats, and 

 mice, only with this differ- 

 ence, that in the case of the 

 fish the young are as perfect 

 in every detail, when launched 

 into the water, as the parent, 

 and swim away self-dependent, 

 to feed or be fed on, as good 

 or ill-luck befalls the little 

 wanderer. The wood-cut* represents the female 

 with the young in situ, together with others scat- 

 tered round her, having fallen out when the walls 

 of the abdomen were dissected open. The drawing 

 was made from a female fish I brought from Van- 

 couver Island, now exhibiting in the Fish Room 

 of the British Museum. Another equally fine speci- 

 men may be seen in Mr. Erank Buckland's Museum 

 in the South Kensington Gardens. 



At San Erancisco, as early as April, I saw large 

 numbers of Viviparous Eish in the market for sale ; 

 but after all it is an open question whether these 

 fish really arrive at an earlier period of the year in 

 f he Bay of San Erancisco than at Vancouver Island. 

 I think not. That they are taken earlier in the year, 

 is simply due to the fact that the fishermen at San 

 Erancisco have better nets, and fish in deeper water 



* We are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Bentley for this 

 figure. It is taken from "The Naturalist in Vancouver Island 

 and British Columbia," by John Keast Lord.^.Z S., Naturalist 

 to the British North American Boundary Commission. 2 vols. 

 Bentley. 1866. 



No. 23. 



than the Indians, and consequently take the fish 

 at an earlier period of the year. 



The habit of the fish is clearly to come into shallow 

 water when the period arrives for producing its live 

 young : they make their appearance in the smaller 

 bays and estuaries in June and July, and remain 

 until September. They have a curious habit of 

 swimming close to the surface of the water, and 

 numbers are craftily taken by the Indians, who 

 literally, and not in mere figure of speech, frighten 

 the fish into their canoes. As shoal after shoal of 

 these fish are seen entering the bays, or making their 

 way up those long inland canals, which, like the fiords 

 in Norway, everywhere intersect the coast-line, the 

 savages craftily contrive to get the fish betwixt the 

 bank or rocks, as it may be, and the coast ; then 

 with all their might and main they paddle straight 

 at the terror-stricken fish, lashing the sea with their 

 paddles and yelling like demons. Out leap the fish 

 from the water in their panic to escape what to their 

 affrighted senses is manifestly a terrible monster ; 

 and if not out of the frying-pan into the fire, it is 

 out of the sea into the canoes, which, in the long 

 run, I take to be pretty much the same thing. 



It appears to be a very remarkable trait in the 

 character of viviparous fish, that of leaping out of 

 the water on the slightest alarm. I have often seen 

 them leap into my boat when rowing through a 

 shoal — which is certainly most accommodating. 



The Indians also spear them, using a spear with 

 four barbed points arranged in a circle, but bent so 

 as to make them stand at a considerable distance 

 from each other. With this spear they strike into 

 a shoal of fish, and generally impale three or four 

 at every thrust. 



Soon after arriving at Vancouver Island, I com- 

 menced investigating the habits and periods of 

 migration of the different species of fish which 

 periodically visit the north-west coast. The sole 

 means then at my disposal to obtain specimens of 

 fish for examination was to employ Indians, or to 

 catch them myself. So it happened some of these 

 fish were first brought me by Indians. Cutting 



M 



