Certain Citizens of the Warm Sea 
By LOUIS L. MOWBRAY 
E ven man’s most terrific wars 
against his fellows have a respite; 
they are but cataclysms in the 
normal course of the world; but the bat¬ 
tle of fish against fish—furious, quarter¬ 
less, to the death—is everlasting. So, 
within the warm balmy waters of the 
Gulf Stream oflF the Florida coast, where 
the lazy waves of the surface seem to 
typify peace, the never-ending Armaged¬ 
don of the finny world rises to its highest 
pitch. 
It is almost impossible for the human 
mind to conceive the continuous struggle 
for existence that in these warm seas 
goes on beneath the surface of the water. 
If such conditions existed on “land and 
the resultant mental strain were not pro¬ 
vided for by Nature, few would survive 
the constant tension upon the nervous 
system. 
A fish starting in pursuit of another 
frequently attracts the attention of one 
of a larger species and is in turn pur¬ 
sued. Often, in southern waters, when 
an angler hooks a fish, and before it can 
be drawn into the boat, it is cut in two by 
the jaws of a larger enemy; for most 
carnivorous fish seem instantly to sense 
prey when one of their number is in 
trouble, and a blood lust becomes epi¬ 
demic forthwith. 
LIFE AT A TERRIFIC PACE 
The strife of the seas takes many 
forms. Fishes that feed in shoals have 
a well-planned method for acquiring their 
living food, and the same procedure is 
carried out so often that it resembles the 
workings of an exceptionally well-trained 
body of soldiers. 
When a shoal of smaller fish is located 
near the shore, the larger fishes encircle 
the shoal, herding it to an almost compact 
mass, occasionally darting into it and get¬ 
ting a mouthful. Sometimes they do not 
strike the shoal, but continue driving it 
as bait until somewhat larger fishes at¬ 
tack it. The great fish then proceed to 
feed upon those which have been lured 
by the original prey. 
During the melee the surface water is 
lashed into foam, often for an area ex¬ 
ceeding a mile, and the little fellows are 
jumping every way in their mad efforts to 
escape their enemies. 
Then from the air above comes another 
menace to the safety of the panic-stricken 
legions. The seagulls, man-o’-war birds, 
and pelicans dart upon them as they break 
the surface in their mad efforts to escape 
the dangers of the sea. 
It is possible to locate a shoal of small 
fishes by watching the birds which feed 
from the sea. These fly over the shoal, 
waiting for the inevitable attack of the 
larger fishes to drive the food they seek 
to a point of vantage near the surface 
of the water. 
THE SUPPOSED PASSING OF THE TILEFISH 
In addition to sheltering nearly every 
species of sea creature under the laws of 
chance by providing extreme prolificness, 
Nature has not failed to furnish other 
protective measures to offset somewhat 
the dangers that everywhere threaten to 
eliminate whole species. 
Numerous cases are recorded where a 
certain kind of fish has been almost ob¬ 
literated and for long stretches of time 
has been thought to be extinct, but in 
some manner a sufficient number of indi¬ 
viduals of the species remained to find 
protecting shelter where they might live 
and propagate their kind. 
One case is that of the Tilefish, of which 
much has been written. In the year 1882 
vessels arriving in Philadelphia, New 
York, and Boston reported having passed 
through miles of dead fish of this species. 
From the various accounts, it was esti¬ 
mated that an area of from 5,000 to 7,500 
square miles was thickly strewn with the 
dead and dying creatures. The number 
of fish in this area was computed to be in 
excess of 1,000,000,000. 
Various reasons were advanced for this 
gigantic tragedy, the most plausible being 
that a very sudden drop in temperature 
along the northern edge of the Gulf Stream 
proved fatal to these warm-water fish. 
