FISH SERVE FOR LAMPS. 



In Alaska there is little need for light 

 during the summer season for then na- 

 ture's grand luminary is sleepless. 



But during the long, dark winter, 

 when the natives require an almost con- 

 stant light, they have the most inex- 

 pensive and ingenious substitute ever 

 ready at hand. 



The water supplies them abundantly, 

 with the Ulikon, or, in native parlance, 

 the candle fish. 



These, in size, resemble our smelts ; 

 but they are so full of oil that when 

 they are dried they melt almost entirely 

 away. 



The Indians dry them and store them 

 away to be used both as food and light. 



When they are to serve the purpose 

 of a lamp, a piece of rush pith or the 

 inner bark of the cypress tree is drawn 

 through them as a wick, a long needle 



of hard wood, being used for the pur- 

 pose. A match is then applied at one end, 

 and the fish burns clearly and brightly, 

 until consumed. The illumination giv- 

 en by one candle fish being equal to 

 that of three or four tallow candles. 

 These fish run in great schools, at cer- 

 tain seasons of the year. They come in 

 from the sea, and invade the rivers and 

 lakes about the shore. The Natives rake 

 them in with monster combs. 



The quality of oil they contain pre- 

 vents their being preserved in alcohol 

 as was discovered when some specimens 

 were being prepared for the Smithson- 

 ian Institute, at . Washington. 



The Alaskans often boil them, and 

 allow the oil thus obtained to harden 

 into a butter, not unlike our dairy arti- 

 cle. They, however, eat their butter only 

 after it has become quite rancid. 



Louise Jamison. 



FISH SCALE IN A NEW ROLE. 



There are several shops in the down- 

 town district of New York City where 

 is carried on a novel sort of industry. 



This is the manufacture of artificial 

 flowers from fish scales. At a first 

 glance these odd imitations of the vege- 

 table kingdom present a rather fantastic 

 appearance, for, while in shape and color 

 they follow the conventional type, they 

 possess a firmness of line, a transparency 

 of tissue, and a play of color, which ren- 

 ders them unique of their kind. 



"Not many people know about them," 

 the deft young worker in one of the 

 shops informed me, "you see they are 

 quite new, so far as New York is con- 

 cerned," she added. "We have learned 

 to make them in the last year." 



The industry, itself, is a very old one, 

 however. The Indians of Venezuela 

 and Northern Brazil have practiced it 

 from time memmorial and as they had 



the marvelously colored fish of the tropi- 

 cal seas to draw! upon, they were es- 

 pecially favored in the matter of mater- 

 ial. They, in time^ taught it to the Span- 

 iards of the West Indies. 



During our Spanish war the trick of 

 manufacture was introduced into- Flor- 

 ida, and in time it reached New York, 

 where these oddly beautiful flowers 

 promise to become very popular. 



Apparently, they are not difificult to 

 make, the worker's table and tools re- 

 semble, upon a casual inspection, those 

 used by a jeweller. The scales are al- 

 ways flat when they come into the hands 

 of the operator, but by means of small 

 compression they are concaved or curled 

 in order to simulate petals, sepals, and 

 many forms of leaves. 



Afterwards they are easily fastened 

 together, or to wires, with strong fish 

 glue. ' Louise Jamison. 



89 



