WEST INDIAN POISONOUS FISHES. 681 



wholesome specimens, which I advised them to reject, and by so 

 doing every time they went seining had no more cases of fish poison- 

 ing on board. 



In tropical seas some fish are found to be always poisonous wher- 

 ever and whenever caught, but there are numerous instances where 

 wholesome fish become noxious when found in certain localities, 

 especially on coral reefs and shoals. Fish when feeding on decom- 

 posing coral polyps, medusae, and poisonous mollusks found on these 

 reefs often become noxious, as the following instance will prove: 

 Midway between Cuba, Hayti, and Jamaica lie the extensive reefs 

 and shoals of the Formigas, which are several miles in extent and 

 covered by a small depth of water. These shoals present a concen- 

 tration of all the incidents to be found in West Indian fringing 

 shore reefs. Arborescent corals and spreading millepores stretch 

 on walls and ledges, interspersed with huge meandrinas and brain- 

 stones, among which lodge a profusion of Holothurias, starfishes, 

 and a variety of sponges. This great mass of reefs, called from 

 their clustering swarm the Ants' Nest, or the Formigas, abound with 

 all sorts of fishes. As you approach the great submarine plateau, 

 the odor of the slime and of the spermatic substances that find a 

 resting place in the crevices and shallow pools spread through it is 

 very remarkable the pleasant blandness of the sea breeze sud- 

 denly changing to the nauseating smell of a fish market. Those 

 who have waded on tropical shore reefs know not only the strong 

 scent given out by the polyps that build there, but feel how sensibly 

 the hands are affected, and how the skin of the thighs is susceptible 

 of a stinging irritation from the slightest contact with the slime of 

 corals. It has been found by invariable experience that all the 

 fishes taken on the Formigas are pernicious; that the barracudas 

 especially are always poisonous. Similar stretches of shoals among 

 the Bahamas produce fishes deleterious as food. 



The low-spreading ledges and banks of the Virgin Islands, called 

 the Anegadas, or the Drowned Islands, afford a similar unfavorable 

 ground for fishing. In this way we may account for the remark 

 of Dr. Grainger that fishes are poisonous at one end of St. Chris- 

 topher while they are harmless at another. We get over, by these 

 several incidents of those fishing grounds, the adventitious occur- 

 rence of poisonous among wholesome fishes, which become deleteri- 

 ous from the food on which they subsist at certain seasons on certain 

 banks and coasts. 



Again, in the tropics wholesome fish soon become virulently 

 poisonous if kept too long, as the fierce heat favors rapid decom- 

 position. In this short article I have only space for a description 

 of the most common and injurious fishes met with in the West 



