266 Modern Fishctdture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



To further prove that these things are beyond the 

 knowledge and control of man, and also to show that 

 they are not confined to fresh water, I will cite : With- 

 in ten years, more or less, the United States Fish Com- 

 mission discovered a new and valuable food fish by 

 methods not pursued by the commercial fishermen on 

 the New England coast. The fish had no common 

 name, of course, and as the scientists had christened it 

 by the pretty and simple name of Lopholatilus chamce- 

 Iconticeps, and as it was evident that the marketman 

 and the club steward might not grasp the full mean- 

 ing of all the syllables, the last one in its front name 

 was shortened and it bloomed upon the market as the 

 "tile fish." 



It had hardly got in favor with the New York and 

 Boston hotels when reports from ship captains came in 

 that they had sailed through miles of strange fish float- 

 ing dead upon the water. This was about 1884, and 

 not a single fish of this species was taken until 1898. 

 It was believed that they had been exterminated by 

 some submarine disturbances, but our later reports 

 show that enough escaped the catastrophe to perpet- 

 uate the species. It is a valuable food fish, but one 

 which, by its deep water habitat, escaped our fishermen 

 until the Fish Commission found it by fishing beyond 

 the banks, where the hardy cod fishers do not go. It 

 is now increasing in numbers. 



Cases of mortality among fishes might be extended, 

 it being well known that in Lake Ontario some of the 

 smaller "lake herring" die ofT yearly in great numbers, 

 a fact about which we have nothing to base an opinion. 



The following is from a recent New York paper: 



"Port Jervis, N. Y., May 18, 1898.— The shores of 

 Monhagen and Highland lakes, near Middletown, are 



