THE TRUE FISH J. 



Sword-fish are extensively fished for food, and the annual catch on the 

 New England coast is about one million rive hundred tl, | n, 



Some like the flesh, but in the writer's opinion it is aboul 

 sible. The fish are caught by harpooning. 



In almost every popular work on natural history reference is n 

 the wonderful archer-fishes of the East Indies, sometimes with won 

 details. Yet the basis of the story is furnished by Bloch, a n 

 the last century, in words which, when translated, were mucl 

 '.' Observe how this fish ensnares the flies it discovers on the marine pi 

 which project above the water. It approaches within five or six : 

 the insect, and then squirts water upon it with such force that it 

 fails to bring it down and make it its prey." Upon this slender basis v. 

 marvellous superstructures have been raised, and whal faithful pi 

 have been drawn! And yet the whole story is probably a myth, which 

 arose, nobody knows how. No recent traveler has seen the operation, and 

 Bleeker (a thorough student of fishes, who lived many years in the Dutch 

 Indies, where these fishes abound) never saw an instance of it, noi 

 heard it mentioned in Batavia. Still, the archers and coral-fishes an 

 attractive, even if the old story is destroyed, for they are among tl: 

 brilliantly colored of all fishes, and are exceeding savory withal. 



The surgeons or doctors are also remarkable for a sharp Lancet-like 

 spine on either side of the tail, which can be erected or depressed at will. 

 They are very pugnacious, and when aroused they flirt the tail around in 

 the most vicious manner, inflicting severe wound-. 



Of the perch-like forms the first to be mentioned i- the weak-fish 

 squeteague, which derives the first-mentioned name from the weak] 

 its jaws. It is of comparatively little value as food. A relativ< 

 the drum-fish, shown in our cut; it is one of the largesl of our food 

 but is little used north of Maryland. They are bottom-feeding fishes, 

 are provided with hard and heavy pavement-like teeth, which well i 

 them to feeding on crabs and molluscs. They go in large scho 

 they appear on an oyster-bed, the amount of damage they do frequ 

 amounts to thousands of dollars. They fill their mouths with the moll 

 crush the shells, and swallow what they need ; but it seems tha 

 not eat half what they destroy, but seem to go over a bed cms 

 sheUsand dropping the fragments untasted on the bottom. Tl 

 the schools is shown by three quotations from Mr. Lngersoll.- 1 

 218 were caught, weighing between 8000 to 9000 pounds. 

 haul took 719. weighing on the average over fifty pounds each 

 largest on record occurred in 1804. One haul of the seine i 

 " 12,250 fish, the average weight of which was found to be 



