XI. -HISTORY OF THE TILE-FISH. 



By Capt. J. W. Collins. 



A.— INTRODUCTION. 



1. — OBJECTS OF THE ESSAY. 



In a large country like tlie CJnited States, with a rapidly increasing 

 population, everything pertaining to the subject of food for the people is 

 a matter of public interest. As is well known, our sea-fisheries are a 

 source from whence is drawn a large amount of the most nutritious food, 

 which, as a rule, can be obtained by the consumer at a moderate cost. 

 This being the case, and the fact existing that some of the most valuable 

 species of our food-fishes are apparently being decreased in numbers to a 

 greater or less extent by overfishing, it is not surprising that much inter- 

 est should have been felt in the discovery off our coast, in 1879, of a new 

 and valuable food-fish {Lopholatilus chamcpJeonticeps), equaling the cod 

 in size, and occurring in great abundance in the locality where it was 

 found. But when, in the sj^ring of 1882, fish, chiefly of this species, 

 were reported by incoming vessels as having been seen in countless mil- 

 lions floating upon the surface of the ocean in a dead or dying con- 

 dition, covering thousands of square miles of the sea, it is not at all won- 

 derful that the public interest was very much excited, and that a very 

 general desire to learn more of this species was exhibited. The followl 

 ing extract from an article* in the the Boston Daily Advertiser, Apri- 

 5, 1882, may serve as a fair example of the consideration which this sub- 

 ject received in the public press : 



"Extensive as our list of edible fish is,'- says the writer, "people will 

 gladly welcome anything new and desirable from lake, stream, or ocean. 

 If to the standard cod, haddock, mackerel, and salmon we may add com- 

 panionshii^ of some heretofore little known, or quite unknown, fish for 

 the further development of the general fisheries interest, both as regards 

 labor and trade, we shall be fortunate. A living question just now is, 

 whether or no we have a tide in the affairs of fishermen that, taken 

 ' at the flood,' shall lead to good fortune. The excellent edible fish 

 brought to notice by our United States Fish Commissioner not long 

 ago, and so recently found dead and floating in immeasurable numbers 

 upon the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean, may be the 'coming' 

 fish. Not one to supersede the cod and its confreres, but possibly one 



"■ Written by Geome E. Emory. 

 [1] 237 



