28 Fish Stories 



are yellow, with some brown blotches, rather stumpy in 

 build, with the tail flattened like an oar. They have long 

 fangs like rattlesnakes, and their bite is equally dangerous. 

 These are found in the Indian Ocean, up through the Phil- 

 ippines to southern Japan, and I have two or three taken 

 about Mazatlan in the Gulf of California. But the sea ser- 

 pent of the honest mariner is not of this class. It is either 

 a long black ribbon dripping back into the waves, on the 

 surface of which it rides, or else it rears its blue head, sur- 

 mounted by a long red mane, like an impossible horse. In 

 the first case it is either a frill-shark or else some sort of 

 eel, or may be a seaweed, and there are many sorts of eels 

 and sharks and seaweeds fantastic enough to satisfy any 

 imagination. 



In the other case, it is the great oar-fish described, called 

 King of the Herrings, because our Norwegian and Scotch 

 ancestors once believed that it was the herring's real king, 

 and that to harm it would be to drive the herring to some 

 other coast. The name, " King of the Herrings," went into 

 science as Regalecus, from rex, king, and Jialec, herring. 

 The Japanese fancy, which runs in a different line, calls the 

 creature " Dugunonuatatori," which means the ** Cock of 

 the palace under the sea." It is not a king, and not a cock, 

 nor yet a serpent, and there is not in any sea this side of 

 Mars any kind of serpent over four feet long. 



Just as in Norway, the fantastic oar-fish was believed to 

 be the king of the herrings and cherished as such, so among 

 the Indians of Puget Sound, another freak fish is held sacred 

 as the king of the salmon. The people about Cape Flattery 

 believe, that if one does any harm to this fish, the salmon 

 will at once leave the shores. This fable led the naturalists 

 who first discovered this fish to give its name of Rex-sal- 

 monorum. 



In Europe, a similar species has long been known by the 

 name of deal-fish, or vogmar, neither of these names having 

 any evident propriety. 



