134 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 10, 1887. 



AN, ALASKAN SEA SERPENT, 



AN ALASKAN SEA SERPENT. 



THE existence of veritable sea serpents — or, more cor- 

 rectly, ophidions — is no longer disputed or doubted. 

 It has been ascertained through observation of navigators 

 and scientists, covering a long period of years, that their 

 distribution is as wide as the salt ocean, and that they 

 exist in all its subdivisions, boreal as well as tropical. 

 Characteristic analogues are also found in some inland 

 fresh- water bodies. These sea serpents, so regarded, are 

 manifestly not of one scientific type, but vary in form, 

 structure, appearance and habits, like representative 

 species of other fauna, terrestrial or marine. Some are 

 diminutive and others immense. Some inhabit near the 

 shore, and others range the profoundest depths of oceans. 

 Some are harmless, others rapacious. Some feed on one 

 thing, and some on another. Some are sombre and slug- 

 gish, and others resplendent and alert. In the ocean there 

 are paradoxical coordinates of terrestrial creatures which 

 are of such complex, ambiguous or composite structure 

 as to render it difficult to class them or determine 

 whether they be fish, flesh, fowl or reptile. Presumably 

 sea serpents are not all snakes, nor yet all fish. That 

 specimens of their more common forms are not found in 

 museums and collections is due not so much to their 

 rarity or difficulty of capture, as to the fact that collectors 

 have not visited those localities which they have been 

 found to frequent. Indeed, their habitat has been as 

 vague and uncertain hitherto as that of the octopus 

 previous to 1874. By the same token, there are hosts of 

 objects, mysterious and unrecognized at the present day, 

 which were well known to the Ancients (though not 

 identified), and are found to be commonplace enough now 

 in remote and unfrequented parts of the globe, to which 

 scientific investigation has only recently been extended. 

 And thus it has come to pass, not so much by inquiry as 

 by chance, that we have happened upon the haunts of i 

 some varieties of the sea serpent, previously declared to 

 be a myth. Thus the enlightenment of the new world is 

 reflected from the old, and the adage proved again, that 

 there is nothing new under the sun. 



Away out in Alaska, eleven hundred and ten nautical 

 miles due west of Sitka, in the Aleutian Archipelago, is 

 the volcanic island of TJnalashka, famed not more for its 

 mountainous beauty than for being the most populous 

 area or subdivision in the North Pacific, containing once 

 no less than twenty-four thriving villages. Its chief set- 

 tlement, Ilinlink, is even now the commercial center of 

 all that region, comprising several hundred civilized in- 

 habitants living in comfort and thrift. The settlement 

 and its environs are graphically described by Mr. Henry 

 W. Elliott in the following language: 



"The panorama of land and water here in summer is 

 an exceedingly attractive one. Here, strung along for 

 half a mile just back of a curved and pebbly beach, is an 

 irregular row of frame single-story cottages, a large 

 G-reek church and a fine parsonage, three or four big 

 wooden warehouses with a wharf running well into the 

 harbor, two or more trading stores, one of them quite im- 

 posing in its size, and fifty or sixty baraboras (native 

 nouses). They are placed upon a narrow spit of alluvium 

 that divides the sea from the waters of a small creek 

 which runs just back of the village right under the hills 

 that abruptly rise there, to rise again further inland to 

 higher peaks in turn. A rich, dark vivid green covers 

 and clothes the mountain slopes, the valleys and the hills, 

 even to the loftiest summits, where only a light patch of 

 glistening snow is now and then seen, relieved thereon by 

 the grayish-brown rocky shingles. These hills and moun- 

 tains, rising on every hand above us from the landlocked 

 shore of Captain's Harbor, bear no timber whatsoever, 

 but the mantle of circumpolar sphagnum, interspersed 

 with grasses and an ample flora, makes amends for that 

 deficiency and hides their nakedness completely. In 

 their narrow defiles and over the bottom land patches, 

 grass grows with tropical luxuriance, waist high, with 

 small clumps of stunted willow bushes clinging to the 

 banks of little water courses and rivulets. Especially 

 gratifying is the landscape, thus adorned, to the senses 

 of any ship-worn traveler, who literally feasts his eyes 

 upon it." 



All sides of this enchanting Unalashka Island are 

 deeply indented by bays and fiords. Reefs and rocks, 

 sunken and awash, extend seaward in a southerly direc- 

 tion to long distances, churned incessantly by the heavy 

 billows which break upon them; but around the northern 

 and eastern margins more good harbors are claimed than 

 for all the other islands of the Aleutian Archipelago put 

 together. Into these sheltered channels and inlets, as 

 well as in the raceways of the outlying reefs, fish in great 

 variety resort — cod, herring, halibut, salmon, trout, and 

 many other edible kinds, feeding upon the surf- washings 

 and the seourings of the ocean bottoms which are carried 

 in by .the winds and tides. And stranger forms of marine 

 life are there in extraordinary presentation, weird, un- 

 couth and rapacious; some hideous with tentacles, claws, 

 and spines, and serried teeth, and others charged with 

 batteries-electrical— creatures devilish in temper and base 

 in motive, who lurk among the weeds and alga? which 

 cling to the rocks, or forage stealthilv among the rafts of 



kelp drifting with the tide. In such an uncanny range 

 as this one variety of the sea-serpent makes his home 

 and thrives, holding his own against all comers. In 

 haunts like this he takes on fat and grows apace. I do 

 not know that he ever attains to the magnitude of those 

 pelagic rangers which are sometimes encountered in the 

 high seas, or indeed, that he aspires to, but he often 

 measures a dozen feet in length, which is a big enough 

 snake to convince the most incredulous. 



Prototypes of the creature shown in the accompanying 

 imperfect cut exist in considerable numbers. Their cus- 

 tomary range is off shore among the sunken reefs where 

 the rock cod resort, which is their favorite food; but they 

 are occasionally caught entangled in the ropy seaweeds 

 which fringe the landwash, in which dilemma the natives 

 do not hesitate to wade in behind them and drive them 

 up on shore, stunning them Avith clubs. In this way the 

 specimen before us was caught. He measured 6ft, long 

 and lOin. thick. The capture was made on June 15, 1886, 

 and a drawing was executed while the creature was still 

 squirming, by S. Rapinsky, a Creole missionary teacher 

 at Ilinlink, but unfortunately the serpent itself was not 

 preserved. As shown in the portrait, he seemed a most 

 extraordinary mongrel, manifestly much more of a fish 

 than an eel appears to be, or even a cutlass fish (Trielii- 

 nurus Upturns), for he has visible gills and opercles, fine 

 scales, two spinous fins on his back and the caudal of a 

 true fish. He has also an immense pair of pectorals for 

 balancing himself, and a full complement of fins to pro- 

 mote locomotion, to say nothing of an abnormal third 

 dorsal which is adipose! Also, he has long, sharp teeth, 

 for holding his prey . and a well dentated vomer for mas- 

 tication. Nevertheless, the tout ensemble is altogether 

 suggestive of snakes. Whether he is less a snake than 

 those more formidable monsters which navigators en- 

 counter on the broad ocean, or those which summer 

 saunterers discover in Seneca Lake or the Hudson River, 

 a capture of the latter alone can determine. In color he 

 was most beautiful, the entire length of his sides being 

 iridescent with purple and golden reflections, while 

 crimson and yellow splashes crossed the lateral line at 

 regular intervals from head to tail. 



There can be no doubt that this specimen was a true 

 fish with an elongated body. The tendency to regard 

 everything vermiform or sinuous as a snake, and 

 everything serpentine as a reptile, has invested certain 

 mysterious denizens of the deep with snake-like attri- 

 butes; but whether they are more serpent than fish, or 

 more reptilian that the undulating specimens of Una- 

 lashka, is what scientists would be delighted to discover. 

 As we find analogues in nature all creation through, it 

 is reasonable to infer that there are true serpents in the 

 sea as well as on the land, and that there are fish as well 

 with serpent forms. Whether this great ophidian of the 

 ancient and modern mariner be fish or reptile, he is, 

 doubtless, predatory, and therefore to be feared and 

 avoided. Inasmuch as we, instinctively, associate ser- 

 pents with evil, we should, perhaps, prefer to regard him 

 as a fish, and therefore of a kindlier nature, yet we do 

 not forget that a creature much less scaly inflicted ineff- 

 able and. lasting misery on man. 



For the sketch which I am able to give I am indebted 

 to the Rev. Sheldon Jackson, U. S. General Agent of Edu- 

 cation, Alaska, who first called my attention to it, saying 

 that he intended to present it to the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. Charles Hallock. 



MENHADEN AND FOOD FISHES. 



Joseph Church & Co., ) 

 Manufacturers of I 

 Menhaden Oil, Guano and Fertilizers, r 

 TlVEKTON, R. L, March 4, 1887. ) 

 Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of March 3 you quote in full from report 

 of Rhode Island Commissioners of Inland Fisheries, which 

 is notable for its hostility to the menhaden fishing- 

 interests of this State. 



The report was brought to our attention as soon as pub- 

 lished, and we took measures to have the Commissioners 

 indicted for libel, but learned they could not be reached 

 in that way. 



Every word they say in regard to the menhaden fishery 

 is false, and we invite one or all of the Commissioners to 

 go out on our steamers and learia. that fact for themselves. 

 We have before made the statement in Forest and 

 Stream and we now reiterate it, that we do not in our 

 regular menhaden fishing catch food fish enough to 

 supply our factory and fishing help. 



Daniel T. Church. 



Salmon in the St. Croix. — There are many old fisher- 

 men on the St. Croix who believe that salmon run in the 

 river every month in the year. Last month this belief 

 was confirmed in some of them by the finding of a fine 

 specimen of a salmon near one of the wharves at St. 

 Stephens. While it seems hardly possible that the fish 

 run all the year round, these accidental captures tend to 

 confirm the belief in those who already entertain it, 



THE RAINBOW TROUT. 



Salmo Irideus. 



BY W. OLDHAM CHAMBERS, F.L.S. 

 [From the Journal of the. National Fishculture Association.] 



THIS valuable variety of trout is indigenous to the 

 waters of California, and earns its appellation from 

 the gorgeousness of its coloration, comprising all the 

 tints of the rainbow. Its nose is obtuse, its gill covers 

 red, while along the body is a red band. The color of 

 the back is a brown; fins are of an orange-pink color. 

 The head and back are marked with small black spots of 

 irregular shape, which extend to the adipose, dorsal and 

 caudal fins. It is a deep, thick-set fish, but, at the same 

 time, the formation is well proportioned, and in this re- 

 spect it is superior to the Salvelvnus fontinalis. The 

 dorsal fin is small and the pectoral fin two-thirds the 

 length of the head. The posterior edge of the operculum, 

 or gill cover, is rounded in form, and the lower edge of 

 the interopercidum and suboperculuni forms a straight 

 oblique line. The tail or caudal fin is more forked than 

 with the S. fontinalis and common trout. The teeth are 

 well defined, and are placed in nine lines across the 

 mouth, namely, one on the vomer, two on the palatine 

 bones, two on the superior maxillary bones, two lines of 

 incurved teeth on the tongue, and two on the lower jaw. 

 The lateral line runs in a plane slightly above the upper 

 portion of the eye. The fin rays are: Dorsal 18, pectoral 

 14, ventral 9, anal 9, caudal 20. The eye is one -fifth the 

 length of the head, and placed l£ its own diameter from 

 point of nose. The length of head, as compared to length 

 of body, head and tail, including caudal rays, is 1 to 5i. 

 The fish now before me is llin, long, Tin. girth, weight 

 l^lbs. and 20 months old. 



We have a fair number of these fish, weighing three- 

 quarters of a pound, at the establishment of the National 

 Fishculture Association, which are nearly two years 

 old, and were obtained from ova forwarded by the 

 American Government. They were incubated at South 

 Kensington, and the fry, when hatched, were trans- 

 ferred to their present location; but owing to the lateness 

 of the season at which the ova was received, some diffi- 

 culty was occasioned in rearing them, but on being well 

 established in suitable ponds, they grewrapidly, insomuch 

 that at the end of eighteen months they far outstripped 

 in size the Salvelinus fontinalis, which besides being a 

 fast growing fish, emerges from the ova three months 

 earlier than the Salmo irideus. After the two years ex- 

 perience I have had of the latter, I unhesitatingly pro- 

 nounce them to be superior to our own species in hardi- 

 ness and rapidity of growth. The attempts made to ac- 

 climatize them ito English waters, so far as restricted 

 areas are concerned, have proved successful, and they 

 seemed to become thoroughly naturalized therein imme- 

 diately on their introduction, proving thereby that the 

 condition of the water, climate and food are well adapted 

 to their wants. In New York the efforts made to 

 plant them have failed to a great extent. It is 

 thought that they leave the waters in which 

 they are placed and descend to the sea , but it is more 

 likely that they are destroyed by other fish, for the fol- 

 lowing reason: The rainbow trout is a very late spawner. 

 and arrives upon the scene at a critical time, as all fish are 

 then feeding ravenously, and in this way the young fish 

 are cut off in the outset of their existence. The rainbow 

 trout is not plentiful, even in its native haunts at Cali- 

 fornia, which may be accounted for by the disadvantages 

 it labors under during its alevin stage. This drawback 

 to the advancement of the propagation of this promising 

 fish would not, I think, be experienced in England, I am 

 justified in expressing this opinion, owing to confirmatory 

 evidence being forthcoming at Delaford, where the fish 

 furnish signs of yielding their ova toward the middle of 

 January. If so, 'the date of spawning would be about the 

 same time as other species of trout; thus the fear of can- 

 nibalism, experienced in the United States, need not be 

 entertained, as the fry would be able to protect themselves 

 in the same way as then- baby cousins. 



It is not surprising to find that the rainbow trout should 

 show signs of generating so mueh earlier in this country 

 than abroad, especially at Delaford, where the water is 

 softer than that in California. Late spawners are gener- 

 ally those that inhabit water of a low temperature, but if 

 such fish are transferred to warmer climes they alter their 

 nature accordingly. This is precisely the case with' the 

 rainbow trout, which have evidently changed then habits 

 and adapted themselves to the altered condition under 

 which they are now placed. 



The facts already adduced regarding this fish can only 

 be applied to them under a semi-artificial state, as hitherto 

 they have, to a great extent, been confined in close quar- 

 ters. A few were turned into the River Colne and were 

 caught by me in the same locality a year afterward. This 

 experiment, I hope, will be extended shortly if they can- 

 be raised in sufficiently large numbers to allow of its being- 

 done, which I have no doubt about, as the United States 

 Fish Commission, through Prof. Baird, are willing to 

 forward further consignments of ova. These, in addition 

 to the stock reproduced by the fish in the possession of 



