[27] HISTORY OF THE TILE-FISH. 26^« 



brought on deck. Captaiu McLain stated that it was alive for three 

 hours after capture. It was the only fish of this kind he had seen, and 

 was a novel fish to him. The captain mentioned, however, that there 

 were other kinds of fish in the water — dead ones — but that he had not 

 thought it worth while to take any, but he said that Capt. W. Gibbs, 

 of the schooner W. H. Oaks, he believed, had picked some up. 



" With the New York State fish commissioner, who is always eager 

 to see a new fish, was a representative of the New York Times, and they,, 

 after boarding several smacks, found the schooner Oaks, and Captain 

 Gibbs, her skipper, produced the strange fish. Just as soon as this 

 skipper hauled out one of those peculiar cans which the United States 

 Fish Commission provides all captains of smacks with, in order that 

 they shall i)rese1:'ve their specimens, it at once became evident that Cap- 

 tain Gibbs was an ichthyological enthusiast. The captain presented 

 two very queer fish, which looked like a cross between a croaker {Micro- 

 pogon undulatus) and a gurnard. But the difference was marked. The 

 fish had spines, a long bony snout, and a hard, indurated case, so that 

 they would be an exceedingly difficult fish to swallow. In size they 

 were about 10 inches long. The alcohol had bleached them, and of their 

 brilliant coloring there was nothing left but the tail, which was red. 

 It is supposable that they belonged to a deep-sea fish. As it was, they 

 were unknown to the visitors. Captain Gibbs said he saw hundreds of 

 them ; they were all dead, and of a brilliant red color. He had sailed 

 for 3 or 4 miles through them. The latitude was 38° 5', the lon- 

 gitude 73*^ 40', and the nearest land. Winter Headquarters, 60 miles off, 

 on the Delaware coast. There were no soundings. The weather was 

 pleasant, nor had there been any blow for some days before. Captain 

 Gibbs handed over his specimens to his visitors with a request that 

 they should be sent to Washington to Professor Baird for examination. 



" It seems probable that more specimens of the LopJiolatilus have been 

 taken on the same day — Thursday, the 20th— by other vessels than the 

 Herald of the Morning, but a careful inquiry among the mackerel 

 schooners at the docks failed to find any more Tile-fish. The Charles 

 K. Lawrence, Captain Carter, may, perhaps, have come across some."* 



The fishes brought in by the schooner William S. Oakes, were the 

 Peristedium miniatum. This species was first known to science in the 

 fall of 1880, when several specimens were taken in September by the 



* The following letter from Mr. Barnet Phillips to Professor Baird, notifying him of 

 the arrival of another specimen of the Lopholatilus, was received on the same day that 

 the paragraph quoted above was published : 



" I have just seen hanging at Blackford's a Tile-fish of 43 pounds. It was caugh 

 yesterday — Thursday, 20th — by Captain McLain, in latitude 37° 29', longitude 74°. 

 Name of vessel, schooner Herald of the Morning. Distance from the capes of Vir- 

 ginia, 85 miles where fish was caught. When taken with a gaff it was floating, belly 

 up, and when put on deck lived about two hours. 



" I will try and find further particulars as to number offish seen, &c. 



"New York, Frldai/, April 21, 18ri2." 



