260 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [24] 



commanding officer having reported the presence of snch fish, a series 

 of interrogatories were presented to him by one of the members of the 

 American Fish-cultnral Association, who was accompanied by Capt. 

 John Mortimer. Captain Lamb said that on the 21st of March, when 

 about G5 miles oli'-shore from Barnegat, he sailed for 40 miles at least 

 through waters filled with these dead fish. Having been asked if he 

 could describe the number of fish in a given area, taking his ship^s cabin 

 as indicating the space. Captain Lamb replied that ' there would be 

 fully 50 dead fish within that space. The sea was quiet and we were 

 going about from 4 to 5 knots an hour, and we sailed for some seven 

 to eight hours, say 40 miles, with these dead fish alongside of us. There 

 were millions of them. From my log I find that the exact locality was 

 39° 7' north latitude, and the longitude 73° 10' west. We had been 

 sailing all the morning north by west, and were well inside of the Gulf 

 Stream. The temperature was 45°. We found these fish when we could 

 not get soundings.' Captain Lamb had not eaten any of the fish, but 

 calling in the carpenter, who had partaken of the fish, having caught 

 two of them, the man was questioned. ' The fish was a curious fish,' the 

 carpenter said. ' He had never seen the like before. There was in the 

 crew a Nova Scotia man, and he did not know what kind of a fish it was. 

 I took two, and they were fresh and sound. The gills were red, and 

 they bled when opened. The head was curious — different from what I 

 had ever seen on a fish before. One thing I took notice of was a certain 

 lot of yellow spots on the sides of the fish. They would weigh about 

 from 8 to 9 pounds.' " 



A single individual only of the dead fish was secured by the bark 

 Alf which arrived in New York March 24, 1882, but her captain was 

 very ])ositive that he saw several species of dead fish besides the Tile- 

 fish. The following account of an interview with him is taken from 

 the New York Herald of March 28, 1882 : 



" I am Captain Larsen, of the Norwegian bark Alf. I arrived in New 

 York on March 24. On Wednesday last, when just inside the Gulf 

 Stream, about 70 miles south-southeast off Sandy Hook, I saw for GO 

 miles scattered over the water thousands of dead and dying fishes. 

 This was in about 15 fathoms of water. I noticed four different varieties. 

 I do not know the names of any. I picked up one but did not eat it. 

 (From the captain's description it was evidently a Tile-fish.) The ma- 

 jority of the fishes floating about were similar to it, but dispersed among: 

 them there were queer looking fishes, all red on top, that had two pro- 

 truding horns. These were smaller in size than the fish I secured, which 

 was 2J feet in length. Besides these there were large, flat, brown-look- 

 ing fishes, and thousands of small fishes, shiny in color, about a foot 

 long." 



In the same paper is given another captain's statement. 



Captain Porter, of the bark Avonmore, said : " I have just arrived in 

 port. On March 25, when in north latitude 39° 15' and about 100 miles 



