218 Notice of an Extraordinary Fish. [April, 



VII. — Notice of an Extraordinary Fish. By H. Piddington, Esq. 



The following notices of a new and monstrous fish may probably be 

 worth recording in the Journal. They do not altogether agree with 

 those of the fish described in your January No., by Lieut. Foley, 

 but there may be more than one species of these monsters. 



In December, 1816, I commanded a small Spanish brig, and was 

 lying at anchor in the Bay of Mariveles, at the entrance of the Bay 

 of Manilla. One day, about noon, hearing a confusion upon deck, I 

 ran up, and looking over the side, thought, from what I saw, that the 

 vessel had parted, and was drifting over a bank of white sand or coral, 

 with large black spots. I called out to let go another anchor, but my 

 people, Manilla men, all said, " No Sir ! its only the chacon !" and 

 upon running up the rigging, I saw indeed that I had mistaken the 

 motion of the spotted back of an enormous fish passing under the ves- 

 sel, for the vessel itself driving over a bank ! My boatswain (contra- 

 mestrej, a Cadiz man, with great foolhai'diness jumped into the boat 

 with four men, and actually succeeded in harpooning the fish ! with the 

 common dolphin-harpoon, or grains, as they are usually called, to 

 which he had made fast the deep-sea line ; but they were towed at 

 such a fearful rate out to sea, that they were glad to cut from it imme- 

 diately. 



From the view I had of the fish, and the time it took to pass slowly 

 under the vessel, I should not suppose it less than 70 or 80 feet in 

 length. Its breadth was very great in proportion ; perhaps not less 

 than 30 feet. The back so spotted, that, had it been at rest, it must 

 have been taken for a eoral shoal, the appearance of which is familiar 

 to seamen. I did not distinguish the head or fins well, from being 

 father short-sighted, and there being some confusion on board. 



As my people seemed to look upon '' the chacon," as they called it. 

 almost in the light of an old acquaintance, which indeed it was to 

 many of them who had served in the Spanish gun-boat service, J 

 made many inquiries of them, of which the following is the result. 



1 . That there were formerly two of these monsters, and that they 

 lived (tenian su casaj in a cluster of rocks, called Los Puercos, at the 

 S. W. entrance of the Bay of Mariveles ; but that, about ten or fifteen 

 years before this time, or say in 1800, one was driven on shore, and 

 died close to the village in the bay ; the inhabitants of which were com- 

 pelled by the stench to abandon their houses for a time. 



2. That the remaining one frequented the bay of Mariveles and that 

 of Manilla, and it was supposed, that it often attacked and destroyed 

 small fishing boats, which never appeared after going out to fish, 



