408 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[May 23, 1903. 
Col. Stearns, of Los Angeles, who holds the tuna 
record for 1902, and Mr. John W. Northrop, of Chi- 
cago, who is one of the best-known sea anglers in the 
country, having taken about every big fish that swims, 
including the big devil fish of the Mexican Gulf, The 
following are the Tuna Club's records up to date, and 
as may be surmised, the club record of 251, of Col. 
Morehouse, president of the club, until he is beaten, is 
the plum which anglers are reaching for. 
The fifth annual angling tournament of the Santa 
Catalina Island Tuna Club opened with this month 
of May. 
The only restrictions are the rules of the Tuna Club 
that rods and reels must be used and that rods must 
not be less than 6 feet 9 inches in length, the tip of 
which must not weigh more than 16 ounces. By "tip" 
is meant all that portion of the rod from reel seat to 
end of rod. The line must not exceed 24 threads or 
strands and be capable of sustaining a dead weight 
of not more than 48 pounds. All anglers must bring 
his or lier fish to gaff unaided, and the fish must be 
reeled in, a broken rod either before or after gaffing 
disqualifies the angler. The tournament is open to 
amateurs _ only, professional boatmen, those engaged 
in aJHed industries on the island and members of their 
families being barred, except as in special class I. 
The present holders of cups and records are: 
Largest tuna— C. F. Holder, Pasadena, season 1899, 
183 pounds; Col. C. P. Morehouse, Pasadena, season 
1900, 251 pounds; F. S. Schenck. Brooklyn, N. Y., sea- 
son 1901, 158 pounds; F. V. Rider, Avalon, season 
1901, 158 pounds; John E. Stearns. Los Angeles, season 
igo2, 197 pounds. 
Black Sea Bass. — F. V. Rider. Avalon, season 1898, 
327 pounds; T. S. Manning, Avalon, season 1899, 370 
pounds; F. S. Schenck, Brooklyn, N. Y., season 1900, 
384 pounds; A. C. Thompson, Pomona, season 1901, 
384 pounds; H. T. Kendall, Pasadena, season 1902, 419 
pounds. 
Largest Yellowtail, — F. V. Rider, Avalon, season 
1898, 41 pounds; F. S. Gerrish. Jacksonville, Fla., season 
1899, 37 pounds: R. F. Stocking. Los Angeles, season 
1900, 48 pounds; T. S. Manning, season 1901. 33 pounds; 
Dr. Trowbridge, Fresno, season 1902, 4714 pounds. 
The game fishes listed in the tournament are the 
tuna, black sea_ bass, albicore, yellowtail, whitefish, 
sheepshead, bonito, rock bass. Handsome prizes are 
offered in all these classes for both boatman and ang- 
ler. There are prizes to the boatman for the boat which 
takes the first fish of the season, and for the best 
equipped boat, all of which has had its influence in 
making Avalon the admiration of anglers for the 
sportsmanlike methods which hold there. Everyone 
fishes with a rod — no one uses a handline or any kind 
of a line larger than a number 24 Cuttyhunk. If the 
fish can't be caught with this he is not caught at all, 
but that he is caught the records show. Local anglers 
are looking forward to the visit to Avalon this week 
of Dr. Van Dyke, of Princeton, a famous lover of the 
rod, who is in Los Angeles as moderator of the Pres- 
byterian General Assembly. The rugged cliffs of 
Santa Catalina are far different from the charming 
scenes Mr. Van Dyke has pictured yet none the less 
beautiful, and it is the hope of many to see this disciple 
of Walton have a full measure of the "fisherman's 
luck," of which he writes so charmingly. 
Senor X. 
At the Aquarium's Table. 
Where they Like to see Every Boarder with a Good 
Appetite. 
Always after a newly captured fish has been put into 
a tank at the New York Aquarium, the fir.st thing to be 
done is to feed it, or try to get it to eat. At some periods 
of the year some fishes in nature m-iy go entirely without 
food for a long time, and in captivity they may do the 
same, or eat very little; but as a general proposition a 
fi!;h that is doing well eats well ; and there is nothing thnt 
pleases those who have the care of captive fishes so much 
as to see the stock with good appetites. That means th^t 
the fishes are feeling well, to begin with, and their taking 
food regularly and in sufficient quantities means that they 
are keeping up their strength, and, so to speak, their 
spirits. As long as a fish eats it is all right. The new- 
comers are not only tempted with the most attractive 
food that can he supplied to them, but they are actually 
fed by hand ; that is, the food is actually put into their 
mouths, and this very likely is done day after day; and 
the biggest and clumsiest of the fishes are the ones like- 
liest to be fed in this manner. 
Every effort is always made to give the fishes generally 
what they would like to eat, and their" diet is varied as 
much as possible with marine delicacies such as shrimps, 
soft shell clam.s, and .so on; and it is sought to satisfy 
even the tastes of individual fishe.'i. For example, the 
green parrot fishes like soft clams, shells and all, and 
they get them, these beautiful fishes eating the entire 
clam, biting out small chunks and chewing up the pulp 
and shell very fine and swallowing all.j Most fishes that 
eat one sort and another of crnsface.ins, reject the shells. 
But that's the way the green parrots like clams, and that's 
the way the clams are fed to them. On the other hand, 
there are some fishes that get their soft clams on the half 
shell, these being the angel fishes, the cowfishes and the 
trimkfishes, and as it has been found that it is better for 
these fishes' health that they should not eat the tough 
bead of the clam with the leathery^, skinny hood that 
covers it, that part is cut out before the clams, on the 
half shell, are put into the tanks for them. 
Indeed, the dietary is quite varied, as some fish are 
vegetarians, many carnivorous, and a few omnivorous. 
The vegetarians are few in number, and feed on soaked 
cereals or green plants in season. Beside shrimps and 
clams, the carnivores have various tastes. Some will eat 
only hVing fi-shes that they can capture; others thrive 
on dead fishes from which the bones have been removed ; 
some require a diet of small crabs, and almost all enjoy 
a bit of salted codfish as a delicacy. Besides the fishes 
there are the turtles, seal, lobsters, sea-anemones and 
Others to provide for, each requirfng a special knowledge 
of its wants and habits through all the seasons. 
Many an anxious consultation is held over fishes that 
refuse to eat or that develop some disease and lose their 
wonted vigor. This one needs a salve for some wound, 
that one is suffering from some fungus growth. The 
latter is treated by hydropathy literally; that is, if it is a 
fresh water fish it is put into salt water, and vice versa, 
for the fungi that live in one kind of water cannot live 
in the other. 
Another matter of prime importance to the welfare of 
the inhabitants is the constant circulation of the water 
in ample volume. The regulation of the temperature also 
requires constant attention. Fishes arc commonly called 
cold-blooded; they are, in fact, variable-blooded, and are 
keenly susceptible to fluctuations in the temperature of 
the water. In the aquarium not less than in the open 
water, these sensibilities play an important part in the 
life of fishes, and success in management means almost 
hourly attention to the regulation of the temperature. 
The New York Aquarium is furnished with a refrigerat- 
ing apparatus on the one hand, and a warming apparatus 
on the other, so that salmon from the. icy waters of 
Maine may feel at home, while the tropical fishes are com- 
fortable in the neighboring tanks. 
The men in charge of the fish get to know the peculiari- 
ties of every individual. In fact, this is necessary to 
success, and it is knowledge acquired by experience, 
not found in books. They tell us that fish of different 
kinds put together in a tank will fight till one kind is 
killed out, and that occasionally those of the same species 
will hound certain individuals to death; or perhaps it will 
be one only that is made the butt of all the rest. This 
trait is characteristic of the trunkfish. 
The species of fish of which the New York Aquarium 
has the largest number, but of which the public sees the 
least, is the killifish. Although they are only from one 
to_ three inches long, they are as quick witted as the 
brightest of the big fish. They have to be, for they have 
so many enemies. At the aquarium they have an oppor- 
tunity to display their powers of adaptation. They have 
only one opportunity to show what they can do in this 
direction, hut they .make good use of it. There is only 
an instant in which to decide upon the use which they 
will make of this opportunity, but there is no hesitation 
in making the decision. 
The "killies" are collected every day for the aquarium 
by a man employed for the purpose. They are needed in 
large numbers, for they are used as food for the other 
fish. Every day a quantity of them are thrown to the 
bass and trout alive. It is then that they display their 
intelligence, or instinct, whichever it is. One is inclined 
at first thought to believe it is the former, for it is cer- 
tain that they have never been called upon to meet the 
enemy in tanks shaped like those into which they are 
thrown. They quickly adapt themselves to the conditions 
under which the conflict for survival must be fought. 
The foe is as keen in the hunt as the hunted. It is a 
war of the wits. 
The striped bass are kept in one of the oval basins on 
the main floor. There are a score or more of as fine 
specimens of the species as a fisherman ever looked 
upon in it, and it is tantalizing to one fond of fishing to 
watch them lazily moving across the white enamel bot- 
tom. A few minutes before 4 o'clock one of the keepers 
approaches the tank with a pail containing a hundred or 
two of the little fish. He leans over the edge, dips his 
hand into the pail, takes out a handful and tosses them 
into the center of the pool. There is a sudden commo- 
tion in the water. The bass are rising to the surface 
with a rush. It is now or never with the little fish. Do 
they lose their heads ? No I The fight between the bass 
and their supper is now on. Will the bass have their 
supper? They have jumped for the largest of the 
"killies," leaving the smaller ones for dessert. 
When by themselves the smaller "killies" usually remain 
at the bottom of their tank. They do not seek the bottom 
now. It is safer on top. With sundry darts they spring 
for the side of the tank. They know the habits of bass. 
The bass jump for their food. The small fish says to 
himself: "If I can only get to one side of the tank be- 
fore the bass gets me, I have a fighting chance. Unless 
he is exceptionally clever, he cannot get me without hurt- 
ing his snout when he jumps for me." He succeeds in 
reaching the white tile sid^, and finds there many of his 
fellows. They swim along the tank side in groups, and 
the bass leave them alone for a time. 
Probably no angler would think of the weakfish, for 
instance, as one that could be induced to take food from 
the hand; but the weakfish at the New York Aquarium 
will eat in this manner. 
That lightning-quick fish, the mackerel, and others of 
his quick moving family, can likewise be brought to take 
food from the hands, though they do not come up and 
pause and take the food deliberately from the fingers. 
They seize it out of the fingers as they flash past ; doing 
this, however, of a deliberate purpose, so that it may be 
said of them, too, that they will take food from the hand. 
In fact, there is hardly a fish which comes to the 
aquarium which will not take food in this way after be- 
ing there six months or more. The fishes that will take 
food thus include not only the common, familiar kinds, 
but the strangely-shaped and bright-colored varieties 
from the tropics. 
They are indeed so ready to do this that the man who 
feeds them has to look sharp and see that they don't bite 
his fingers. There arc here plenty of fishes, and some of 
them not so big, either, with teeth sharp enough and 
jaws powerful enough to enable them to bite to the bone. 
At the same time there are plenty of the fishes here that 
don't nip and catch in that way, but eat with more de- 
liberation, and there are plenty of them that are at the top 
of the water waiting for the man that feeds them when 
he comes along, or that come to the top to meet him the 
instant he raises the screen above their tank. 
Here is the orange filcfish, from local waters, an odd 
looking fish, which comes to the top and feeds from the 
hand with absolute confidence. Its small curious mouth, 
when open, presents a round orifice not much more than 
big enough to take in a lead pencil. It takes its food by 
suction. 
The orange filefish comes up for the shrimp held out 
for it and mumbles around it without any hurry at all 
until it gets it just right, and then sets its suction going 
and takes it in, and it takes in this way shrimp ^fter 
shrimp. 
A little further along there comes to the sutface for his 
daily treat of killies a big portly triggerfish from Ber- 
muda — a veteran; this old chap has been here since 1897, 
and it comes up now at regular feeding time regulafly 
and waits with its nose right at the top of the water, and 
rolls its eye at you as it waits. 
The man with the feed holds a kiUie down, puts it, in 
fact, right into the fish's mouth, and the old chap Stays 
there and takes the killies as they are handed down. 
Indeed, some of the fish at the aquarium are fed as if 
they were infants who were just being weaned, or in the 
trying period of developing teeth. Instead of presenting 
the food to them on the end. of one's finger, however, a 
slender, sharp pointed stick is used. The sea anemones, 
the African catfish (among the liveliest fish in the 
aquarium), the Siamese climbing perch, sunfish, paradise- 
fish, the _ amphiuma, or Congo snake, the white axolotl, 
the Spanish ribbed newt, the common newt, and the triton 
are some of those which receive their food in this way. 
To all of these is given minced beefsteak. As they are 
not sticklers the steak is only top round. These fish are 
kept in the glass jars in the laboratory and' have no 
opportunity to secure food for themselves. They are 
always glad to get their meal, which varies from one lit- 
tle piece of the minced steak to a number of pieces. Mr. 
Spencer gives thern their meal about 4 o'clock in the after- 
noon. He carries it about on a little wooden spade which 
suggests a butter paddle such as the good housewives of 
New England work their butter with. Beginning at the 
end of the row, he stops in front of each jar in turn, and, 
taking a morsel of the meat on the end of his stick, pushes 
aside the ulva floating on the top of the water, and pokes 
it into the mouth of the fish, which, as a rule, jumps for 
it. Sometimes the meat sticks on the end of the stick 
and then the fish has to give it a pull. Some of the fish 
are so small that they have difficulty in swallowing a 
single morsel. They are always greedy for it, however, 
and ready to undertake the task. 
"Blue Crab !" exclaimed a trim young woman teacher 
in charge of a flock of scholars, reading the label on a 
tank and glancing then into the tank itself, "I don't see 
any blue crabs." 
But scarcely had she spoken when there came swiftly 
floating down from above through the water of the tank 
a lot of small fragments of clam that had been thrown in. 
And scarcely had the first of these fragments reached 
them when the bottom of the tank fairly swarmed with 
the liveliest lot of small crabs ever seen, and lots of them. 
There are in this tank upward of one hundred and fifty 
young blue crabs, ranging from one-quarter of an inch 
up to three inches in length. 
Before that food came down they had all been buried in 
the sand at the bottom of the tank. Now they were all 
out dancing and prancing and jumping about, grabbing 
at pieces of the floating clam and grabbing it away from 
one another, and two crabs pulling at the same piece ; 
little bine crabs — and the blue is the liveliest of all crabs — 
everywhere, and every one on the jump and go. 
The tank that had been a moment before so quiet, was 
now a scene of great activity and excitement, and the 
young teacher and her flock were quite fascinated by the 
show ; as, indeed, are all who chance to see this little 
spectacle of the blue crab tank at feeding time. 
When one of the little crabs has got its claws on a frag- 
ment of clam, it may dart upward through the water ; the 
biue crab is a greeat swimmer. It puts out one big claw, 
bent with the elbow to the front like a cutwater, and trails 
the other straight behind like a rudder or steering oar, 
and propels itself with its swimming claws. 
Many of these little crabs take their food and climb up 
the hack or one of the side walls of the tank and stay 
there to eat it, where they are less likely to be disturbed 
by others; so that now all the walls of the tank are 
sprinkled with variously sized small crabs scattered ir- 
regularly, while the bottom of the tank still swarms with 
them, and the previously vacant water is alive with them, 
darting here and there. So that it is a lively tank, in- 
deed, this tank of the small blue crabs; and many pause 
to look at it. 
There is one crustacean which need haye no fear of the 
vivisectionist. It is the prawn, the first cousin of the 
shrimp. There are a number of them at the aquarium, 
where they are kept in a round jar in the laboratory. The 
reason that they need never fear the vivisectionist is that 
they are so nearly transparent that one may see their little 
hearts, livers and lights, and black linen thread tract right 
through their sides. They look as if they were made of 
glass with a tinge of sea green in it. Except for the two 
tiny dark bead-like eyes on the ends of two hqrn-like 
projections on their heads, one can scarcely distinguish 
them from the water in which they swim, they being so 
nearly colorless. When they swallow a morsel of clam, 
which they do from time to time when they are hungi-y, 
one can observe its progress to the digestive apparatus. 
Strangely, the white morsel looks black when once it is 
inside the prawn. This is because no light can pass 
through the clam, and none can be reflected from it. It 
is no more than a black period inside of a short para- 
graph of a fish. Prawns are three or four inches long. 
In shape and actions one might suppose them to be em- 
bryonic lobsters. They have miniature claws in front and 
a tangled undergrowth of legs. Great feelers — great for 
such an atom of life — go before to warn them of danger. 
Behind they have a paddle-like extremity which serves 
the same purpose as a similar organ on the lobster. By 
suddenly doubling themselves up they are able to shoot 
themselves backward when danger threatens before, but 
they are not as pugnacious as lobsters. Prawns are re-^ 
garded as good to eat. 
Since the death of the big West Indian seal, long 
famous for its habit of squirting water over the by- 
standers around its pool, many of the visitors have trans- 
ferred their attentions to Nellie, the harbor seal, appar- 
ently with the hope that NeUie will cut up some similar 
antics. The handsome harbor seal has always been a 
favorite here, but her pool is now surrounded daily by 
more people than ever. 
Nellie was never a joker like the big West Indian, 
but she is a lively creature and a lightning quick swim- 
mer, and often in making the circuit of her pool she will 
jump three-quarters of her length out of the water. She 
has always been very intelligent and seenis n9W tq be 
