THE OUTDOOR WORLD. 



321 



elaborately and luxuriously equipped 

 home of a naturalist that the world has 

 ever known. 



Long may he and his family enjoy it, 

 and from there call the attention of 

 the people to real animals, to a genu- 

 ine love of nature, and through these 



to the ultimate purposes so well ex- 

 pressed by Professor Hodge : 



"Nature study is learning those things 

 in nature that are best worth knowing, 

 to the end of doing those things that 

 make life most worth living." 



The Greatest True Fish Story. 



BY S. F. HARRIMAN. 

 Note: — The term "fish" is used figuratively, be- 

 cause the blackfish is not strictly a fish, but a 

 species of whale. While there is no record of 

 larger stranding of blackfish, there have been made 

 larger and more valuable catches of fish.- — E. F. B. 



November 17, 1884, on the shores of 

 Cape Cod, Massachusetts, occurred 

 the greatest catch of fish known in 

 the annals of American fisheries. Cape 

 Cod fishermen, celebrated for their 

 vigor, skill and alertness, discovered a 

 large school of blackfish off the inner 

 shore of Cape Cod, where they had 

 been attracted by the great abundance 

 of squid and herring, on which they 

 feed. With dorys and fishing vessels 

 the fishermen drove the huge monsters 

 of the deep, as the farmer drives a 

 flock of sheep, for two or three days 

 and nights, until they succeeded in forc- 

 ing them up Blackfish Creek Bay, in 

 South Wallfleet, Massachusetts. The 

 fish would go on until they stuck fast 

 and were stranded on the shore. They 

 were then lanced by the skilled fisher- 

 men and died on the beach. It hap- 

 pened that the shore was reached at 

 high tide, jusl as it began to ebb ; hence 

 the whole school of fifteen hundred 

 blackfish were soon on the dry sand. 



The slaughter was very exciting, 

 some three hundred fishermen partici- 

 pating. A three-pound fish has been 

 known to make a "scene" when being 

 landed ; imagine, if you can, the death- 

 throes of fifteen hundred fish weighing 

 from five hundred pounds to three tons 

 each. Many of the fish when dying 



would utter a plaintive moan, not un- 

 like that of a human infant, and which 

 proved rather trying to the nerves 

 even of the hardy Cape Cod fishermen. 

 The accompanying illustration shows 

 them at low tide. 



I saw them both at high and low 

 tides. At high tide nearly all were 

 under water, lashed together, and at 

 low tide they looked like a black log 

 yard — an extraordinary sight and one 

 never to be forgotten. 



By the unwritten law of the fisher- 

 men all were sold at auction on the 

 beach and were purchased by Prov- 

 incetown, Truro, Wellfleet and East- 

 ham parties at an average price of 

 ten dollars each, or $15,000 for the 

 1,500 fish. It was estimated that when 

 the blubber was rendered into oil and 

 the bodies into fertilizer the entire 

 value would be about $25,000 at whole- 

 sale prices. The yield of oil from each 

 fish varied from ten gallons to ten 

 barrels. The jaw yields a fine quality 

 of oil, highly prized for oiling clocks, 

 watches and other delicate machinery. 

 There were about 400 shares, a boy 

 drawing a half share, a man a full 

 share, a dory two shares and a fishing 

 vessel six shares — this, too, being un- 

 written law among the fishermen. 



The blackfish, sacred to Apollo, the 

 mythologists and poets will remember, 

 is known by various common names — 

 deductor, social, bottle-head or howl- 

 ing whale — and to the ichthyologists by 

 the scientific name, Globicephalus 

 melas. 



