Notes about Fish. i2y 



pact that it obscured the sun like an eclipse. Near the close of 

 the last century, so many perished in the sea on a part of the 

 African coast that a bank three or four feet high, and about fifty 

 miles long-, was formed on the shore by their dead bodies. The 

 stench was carried 150 miles by the wind. In another part of 

 Africa, early in the Christian era, one plague of locusts is said to 

 have caused the death of 800,000 persons, and, in 591, nearly as 

 bad a plague occurred in Italy. Again, in 1478, more than 30,000 

 persons perished in the Venetian territories from famine caused 

 by locuits. 



NOTES ABOUT FISH. 



The new method of curing herrings by the application of boric 

 acid has proved extremely successful in Norway, and called into 

 life quite a new industry at Bergen. 



A Norwegian writer affirms that he has observed whole shoals 

 of fish, in their anxiety to escape pursuing whales, piled up above 

 the surface of the sea to a height of from three to six feet, and on 

 one occasion about fifteen feet. 



Beaked Chaetodon of the Indian and Polynesian seas is a fish 

 of eccentric form and beautitul tints, but its most remarkable fea- 

 ture is its curiously elongated muzzle or beak, which is employed 

 as a gun, with a drop of water as a bullet. Unlike other fishes, 

 this creature does not wait for its prey to fall into the water, but 

 shoots it down like a true sportsman. Seeing a fly or other insect 

 on a twig over the water, the Chaetodon quietly approaches, and, 

 w^ith its nose just above ihe surface, accurately projects a drop of 

 water at the unsuspecting insect, which is thus knocked from its 

 perch and is quickly snapped up by the fish. The finny archer is 

 highly prized as a household pet by the Japanese, who keep it in 

 bowls, and amuse themselves by watching it ''shoot" flies held 

 up before it. 



Some interesting researches on the injury to the fisheries and 

 fish culture by sewerage and factory waste waters have been made 

 in Germany by Weigett, Sacre and Schwabe. Among other re- 

 sults it was found that the chloride of lime in the water, in pro- 

 portions from 0.04 to 0.005 P^r cent, exerted an immediately fatal 

 action on tench, while trout and salmon perished in the presence 

 of 0.0008 per cent, of chlorine. One per cent, of hydrochloric 

 acid killed tench and trout. Iron acted as a specific poison on 

 fishes, as did alum also. Solutions of caustic lime had a very 

 violent effect. Sodium sulphide, in the proportion of o.i per cent., 

 was endured by tench for half an hour. The injurious action of 

 putrid sewerage depends on the poisonous gases and the defi- 

 ciency of oxygen. 



