THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM JOURNAL. 
71 
rope under the powerful strain rose partly out of 
water, and quivered as the drops flew from its 
tense strands. 
“Don’t slack an inch” was the order, as 
Dago, in whose jaw the keen prongs had firmly 
imbedded themselves, began a series of contor¬ 
tions and headlong rushes, which must have im¬ 
pressed Rock Scorpion and the rest with the idea 
that he had gone crazy and was dangerous, for 
without waiting to investigate the pork question 
further, they beat a precipitate retreat. For 
upwards of ten minutes Dago, utterly regardless 
of pain, sought to tear himself free of the hook, 
then he rolled over and bit viciously on the chain. 
Finally he stopped, as if to gain strength for 
more desperate struggles—this was the watched 
for moment. 
“ Man the line,” briskly ordered the officer. 
In a trice the rope was off the cleat and held in 
a dozen hands ; just then Dago made a new rush 
and for a moment it seemed as if the rope must 
be torn from the men’s grasp. But despite their 
being dragged sliding over the deck, they held 
on manfully until more of the crew could come 
to their aid. Then each man grasped the rope 
with both hands, as if it were the topsail hal¬ 
liards, turned his back to the shark and at the 
word all walked forward. Dago was no match 
for the strong, steady pull—curve his body, swim 
to the opposite direction as hard as he might, he 
slowly was dragged to the ship and at la t his 
great snout could be seen in the midst of a 
whirlpool of foam, protruding from the water 
just under the stern. The pull on the rope was 
now arrested until a noose could be made with 
another line, and this as the shark was lifted 
flapping was deftly slipped down around his fin. 
Thus hampered, it was an easier matter to con¬ 
trol him. 
away, lads/"'came'IfuT"or3er7* , fBe 
man at the rope broke into a run and his shark- 
ship was jerked up on the poop, slid along it, 
bounced down on the quarter deck in a way 
that must have sadly disarranged his breathing 
apparatus, and then hauled rapidly forward until 
the forecastle was reached. Despite the rough 
handling he had undergone he evidently felt 
none the worse, and he meant that his captors 
should understand the fact True he could not 
swim, but he could launch out with his tail in 
the most spiteful manner, and his jaws clashed 
together in a way that boded ill to any one who 
might come within their reach. Besides, after 
a moment or two of rest, he seemed to regain 
fresh energy and he began to flap and jump 
about with a vigor, that induced the sailors to 
leave him in undisturbed possession of a large 
area of deck. 
Finally the boatswain’s mate waited his oppor¬ 
tunity and with a keen hatchet delivered a 
telling blow at the root of the tail. This was a 
quietus and Dago now might undergo the tor¬ 
ture which awaited him, without the consolation 
of struggling against it. Jack knows how much 
mercy to expect from a shark in case he should 
fall into the clutches of the fish and he metes out 
a return with rigid justice. Hardly had Dago’s 
motion ceased when a dozen sheath knives were 
at work on his carcass. One old sailor who bore 
on his body the marks of a bite made by a shark 
that had leaped after him as he was scrambling 
into a boat after an involuntary bath, plunged 
his blade again and again into the quivering 
flesh and finally dug out the eyes. Another cut 
steaks from the living body with butcher-like 
precision ; a third busied himself in dissecting 
out the back-bone, which when properly pre¬ 
pared makes a valuable walking stick. The 
stomach was opened and there was the captain’s 
straw hat badly ripped in places but otherwise 
whole and embedded in an astonishingly heter- 
eogeneous collection. An empty soda-water 
bottle, two crabs, vegetable refuse, and bits of 
rope, were combined in an undigested mass 
which, if sharks suffer from dyspepsia, must have 
produced prolonged misery, 
Even after all the mutilation above described 
was accomplished life still remained. The tail 
wriggled fitfully for some time after it had been 
cut off, and the jaws snapped feebly until the 
head had been hacked clear of the body. Jack 
regaled himself on shark steaks ad libitum for sup¬ 
per, for he has no compunction in devouring his 
enemy, whose flesh though coarse and rank is a 
not disagreeable change of diet, after long con¬ 
tinued rations of government pork and “salt- 
horse.” 
Dago's flesh, which did not find its way into 
human stomachs, furnished an agreeable supper 
for Rock Scorpion, Soger and Swab. He did 
bring bad luck after all, for the tars who pos¬ 
sessed themselves of his skull and back-bone, 
after cleaning them with infinite patience, traded 
them off to a Capetown rum-boatman for rum, 
got surreptitiously but gloriously drunk and on 
detection expiated their spree in irons in the 
“brig ” during the whole stay of the ship in port. 
Park E. Benjamin. 
FISH CULTUR E AT T HE AQUARIUM.. 
The visitors to the Aquarium have manifest¬ 
ed so earnest an interest in the fish-hatching 
department that it is with especial pleasure that 
we improve this early opportunity of laying 
before our readers an official report of pro¬ 
gress’ Although the management of this 
department, with all the preliminary arrange¬ 
ments, was placed in the hands of one whose 
long experience and thorough acquaintance 
with the subject gave promise of success, yet 
owing to certain novel features the attempt 
was at best an experiment. That it has proved 
an eminently successful one appears from the 
following report of Mr. Mather, which was 
read before the recent annual meeting of the 
American Fish Culturists’ Association, and 
which, as the reader will learn, is of a most 
encouraging character, reflecting credit on the 
superintendent and special gratification to the 
manager and the public. The following is 
the report in full : 
Mr. Mather’s Report. 
Sixty thousand eggs of the California salmon 
were received in the month of October to be 
hatched for the United States Fish Commis¬ 
sion. They were packed in moss on the 
McCloud River, Cal., by Mr. Stone, in the 
usual manner, and arrived by express in good 
order with a loss of not over three per cent. 
Of these eggs, 8,200 died, or were killed before 
hatching ; and I will here say we had a diffi¬ 
culty to contend with that is not met with in 
an ordinary-hatching house, viz. : handling 
eggs by visitors. In the State and other es¬ 
tablishments there are no more peop’e than 
I he attendants can watch ; but in the crowds 
at the Aquarium it has been a common thing 
to find that while talking to one party another 
by your side has a handful of eggs going off 
to the window to examine them, and which 
were invariably killed. To remedy this I made 
the water deeper, which lessened the current, 
and was consequently injurious to some eggs 
and fatal to those of the whitefish. The sal¬ 
mon eggs were received October 11, and all 
hatched by November 4, the water ranging 
from 60° at first, and steadily dropping to 54°. 
It is worthy of note that while the time of 
hatching from the first one out of the egg to 
the last was only eighteen days, the difference 
in the time of absorption of the umbilicus was 
nearly forty days ; that is, the first fish took 
food Dec. 19, and all were feeding by Feb. 1, 
excepting, perhaps, a dozen individuals, whose 
sac was only half gone. By the 1st of Janu¬ 
ary the temperature had lowered to 40°, and 
has since stood at 38°. Some of these sal¬ 
mon have been distributed to New Jersey 
waters, others to Long Island, and the re¬ 
mainder are destined for a lake in Northern 
New York. 
I would call attention to an experiment 
made in feeding in the Aquarium. A month 
ago 500 of these salmon were put in one of 
the small tanks in a temperature of 60°, or 
22 ° warmer than those in the hatching 
troughs where the Croton runs, and a great 
difference in size can now be seen, those in 
tank No. 18 being much larger than the oth¬ 
ers of the same age in the colder water of the 
troughs. This bears on the question of their 
adaptability to Southern waters. We have 
also received 25,000 eggs of the whitefish from 
Mr. George Clark, Commissioner on Fisheries 
for Mich.; these, with 10,000 from Seth Green, 
were lost for want of circulation as noted 
above ; 5,000 more have just been received by 
fav'or of Mr. A. J Kellogg, also of hi 
hatched in bulk ; 15,000 eggs of the Cisco or 
Lake herring have been received from O. 
M. Chase, Sup’t of the Detroit Hatchery, 
which are doing well ; 10,000 eggs of the 
Lake trout, from the New York House at Cal¬ 
edonia, are still in process of hatching ; 2,000 
eggs of the land-locked salmon have been re¬ 
ceived from Prof. Baird, and are placed in 
one of Ferguson’s hatching jars, which has 
been presented by the inventor. 
In the salt water department, in tank No. 
12 , can be seen the curious eggs of the skate, 
or ray, with their yolks visible when a light is 
placed behind them ; they are supported by a 
string in a good flow of water, and in nearly 
the same manner as they are hung upon sea¬ 
weed. Whether these eggs are impregnated 
or not, I am unable to say, as they were laid 
in the great tank by the fish, and their devel¬ 
opment is not far enough advanced to deter¬ 
mine with certainty. A great many valuable 
experiments can be conducted in an aquarium, 
both in salt and fresh water, that would be 
difficult at almost any other place, and we wish 
the hearty co-operation of fish culturists all 
over the country, and will be glad to work 
with them and perhaps try the same experi¬ 
ments under different conditions of tempera¬ 
ture, light, etc., that they may be conducting, 
and so arrive at results in the shortest space 
of time. Mr. Coup is disposed to place the 
whole Aquarium at the convenience of prac¬ 
tical or scientific men, to aid them in any 
studies or experiments that they may wish to 
pursue. 
The Department of Fish Culture is under 
obligations to Mr. Wilmot for 1,000 eggs of 
the Ontario salmon (S. Wilmoti); also to 
Prof. S. F. Baird, U. S. Com. on Fisheries; 
Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt, Com. for New 
York; Geo. Clark, Ecorse, Mich.; Seth Green, 
Rochester, N. Y.; Monroe A. Green, Mum- 
ford, N. Y.; A. J. Kellogg, Detroit, Mich.; O. 
M. Chase, Detroit, Mich.; Samuel Wilmot, 
Ontario; Livingston Stone, Charlestown, N. 
II.; T. B. Ferguson, Baltimore, Md. *- 
