The Tile Fish.

Otago Witness, Issue 1639, 21 April 1883, Page 27

The Tile Fish.

How little is really known, even by our most learned scientists, of that wonder! ul country that lies hidden beneath the waves ! What wo know of its geography, aside from the summits of the mountains and highlands that are high enough to rear their heads into our world of air, is barely sufficient to mark out safe routes for vessels from point to point. Ot" the creatures that dwell in this unknown region our knowledge is limited to such specimens as accident may cast up, or the fisher's net gather along its outer edge, or the dredge of the scientific explorer capture in its depths. Wo can scarcely imagine creatures more hideously monstrous or more wonderfully beautiful than some of the known denizens of this immense world of the sea ! For aught we know to the contrary the great sea-serpant may yet prove to be a living reality, for has there not been within the last lew yeais discovered captured, classified, measured, and publicly exhibited a sea monster as horribly strange and terrible as the fiery dragon of fairy tale? What was once called the fabulous devil-fish is now known to every schoolboy as the giant squid.

The discovery of a new and strange food fish need, then, be no surprising matter. Some three years since a fisherman c mght a number ot fish whose odd triangular crest, or adipose fin, on the nape ot their neck, at once marked them as strangers, and created a stir among savants and naturalists ; but if they weie surprised at this sudden appearance of a new fish, they were more suiprisod and puzzled last month, when the commanders of two vessels brought in reports of sailing through miles of dead carcasses of this newly-discovered fish, the Lophohitilus chamnileonticeps, or tile fish. Whence these mysterous strangert. came, or what caused their wholesale slaughter, are questions we know not how to answer, but of the facts we have sufficient proof.

A specimen of the tile fish that was sent to the U. S. National Museum measured 33in in length. We first hear of the "tile fish" from the report of Captain William H. Kirby, of Gloucester, Mass., who took 5001b of a remarkable fish, new to both fishermen and scientists, and forming a type of a new genus and species. These fish were caught- on a codfish trawl SO miles S. by E. of Noinan's Land, lat. 40deg N., long 70 deg W., in Hi fathoms of water. According to Captain Kit by the largest lish weighed 501b. Captain Deinpsey gives the following particulars of this lojiholatilus : " Liver small, somewhat like that of a mackeiel, and contains no oil. Flesh oily, and soon rusts after splitting and drying. The stomach and intestines are small, the latter resembling those of an eel. The swim bladder is similar to that of the cod," and he adds that "the fish were very abundant, and bit fieely." The largest fish caught by Captain Dempsey had a bifid nucleal crest.

Some of the fh-ht tile iish that were brought into Gloucester were sent by Professor Baird to .Fish Commissioner JJlackford, of Fulton Market. These h\h wore cooked and served at the Windsor, and their qualities as a food-tish tested by Mr J. J hiilip>, Kec-jetmy Knh Cultuiist Society ; Mr John Foord, president ot tlie Ichthyophagous Club ; and Mr Blackford. We next hear of this mysterious denizen of the deep from several of the daily papers. There appeared accounts of immense numbers of dead fish that were seen by people aboard vessels that passed the southern end of .St. George's Bank, Newfoundland. Captain Henry Lawrence, of the barque Plymouth, from Antwerp, and Captain George Coalfleet, of the barque Dunkirk, are amongst those who witnessed this phenomenon. — Exchange.