BANK NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1866, 26 August 1887, Page 27

BANK NOTES.

Systematic poaching is said to be indulged in in Eakanui. The Maheno correspondent of the North Otago Times says : — " In some quarters one vies with the other in counting the number ' and weight of ihe trout ' nabbed.' Shags, too, are very plentiful, so that between poachers and shags I think the' Kakanui will be cleaned out ere the season comes in. -Licenses to this district, I presume, will be like angels' visitsfew and far between." Several salmon trout have been driven ashore from the ocean at Owake dead and partly eaten by seagulls, but otherwise in a good state of preservation. THE MUSICAL SCALES OF FISHES. Our able contributor "Sculls" in the last issue of the Angler drew the line of belief quite sharply at a story from an Italian journal detailing the charming of fishes by the human voice in song. We are by no means prepared to take issue on this point in support of the foreign yarn, but, by way of presenting ' the converse of the possibility, something may be said as to the charming of the human ear by the songs of fishes. That "the voiceless daughters of the unpolluted one" as Escbylus in his poems calls fishes, do, in some instances, give vent to sounds akin to musical notes is certain, and it would be a fair argumentative question to ask why should fishes Have Power to Make Sounds if other fishes can't hear and appreciate them ?i Pliny, Ovid, and others, writes a classical scholar, tell us of the scarus and its wonderful powers of intonation. In the days of old ' Rome certain fish were said to have a regular language, " low, sweet, and fascinating," and the Emperor Augustus pretended to understand their very words. We have all heard, ■or heard of, the various sounds of the gurnards, of the booming of the drum-fish, the grunt of the croaker, weakfish and others. The gruntfish of the Gulf of Mexico is said to express discontent and pain, and When Touched With a Knife Fairly Shrieks, and when dying makes moans and sobs disagreeably human. The San Francisco Call recently published the following interesting collection of curious reports on this subject :— That many fishes utter sounds is well known ; as many sis 60 different species of finny vocalists have been heard from time to time. A number of years ago, while on a fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico in the vicinity of Yucatan, I hauled hi a small fish known to science as the hsemulon, and to sailors as the grunt ; and never was a fish better named, as no sooner had I taken it in hand than it rolled a most expressive pair of eyes as far as a fish could roll them and commenced an appeal that quite astonished me. First the grants where low and uttered singly ; then they grew louder and faster, until finally the fish hurled at me A Perfect Volley of Sounds that I accepted as an entreaty for mercy and I hurriedly tossed him back. Later I caught many grunts, and they were all very talkative out of water, but whether these sounds could be uttered in their native element it would be difficult to determine. Dr C. C, Abbott heard the mud sunfish utter a deep' grunting sound, and the gizzard shad makes an audible whirring noise. The chub sucker utters a single prolonged note, while tfce | catfish produces a gentle humming sound. Abbott believes, however, that the Most Musical of the Fishes is the Eel, I that utters a single note frequently repeated | and has a slightly metallic resonance. i The fact that the organ of hearing in these ! musical fishes is very well developed would seem to point to the belief that the notes were calls ; and as the air bladder in fishes represents to some extent the lungs of other animals, there is no reason for not thinking that the fishes have vocal communication. The drumfish is one of the loudest talkers in American waters. When the nets are hauled on the Jersey coast, and large numbers of drumfish are caught, their protests are often very loud. That these fishes utter sounds under water there can be no doubt. The sailors on vessels anchored off shore have Hfard the Strange Noise Rising about them, and described it as booming, while others thought it was occasioned by drums being beaten on shore. The fish utter the sounds, according to some authorities, by striking their pharyngeal teeth together, while other writers think that they beat their bodies against the sides of vessels to rub off certain parasites that infest them. A vessel lying in the China Sea some years ago had a remarkable experience. The sounds that arose about her greatly alarmed the crew, and were described by the captain as resembling escaping steam, the clanging of bells, the notes of an enormous, harp, with others difficult to describe. The concert lasted some hours and was attributed to a school of fishes that was seen in the vicinity. That fishes utter sounds was known in very early times, and Aristotle and Action both refer to the sound-uttering fishes of the Mediterranean. The Ceylonese fishermen are familiar with a fish found in the Lake of Colombo, which they call "magoora," that Makes an Audible Grunt When Disturbed ; and Pallegoix, in his "History of Siam," refers to a brilliant fish, resembling our flounder, which the natives call "dog's tongue," that attaches itself to a boat's bottom and gives out a variety of sounds. Considerable excitement was occasioned at Batticola, Ceylon, a. number of years agOi by the report that musical sounds were heard rising from the sea in various places. Sir E. Tennent visited the locality and interrogated several fisherman who had heard the notes, and described them as resembling the faint Sweet Notes of an Harp. According to the men, they were only audible during the dry season, and they had always known of them, and their fathers before them. They said it was not a fish that sang, but a shell or mollusk, which they call in the Tamil tongue the corie cooleeroo cradoo, or crying shell ; the name evidently being an attempt to reproduce the sound. The men soon pointed out some of the musicians, which proved to be the shells known to science as Litlorina lcevis and Centhium palus. Tennent engaged the man to take him to the spot, and one moonlight night they,- rowed him to a locality about 200 yards north-east of the jetty by the forfc gate, and J

While the Boat Rested in Perfect Silence. not a breath of wind blowing, "he distinctly heard the musical notes. "They came up from the water," he says, like the gentle thrills of a musical chord or the faint vibrations of a wineglass when its rim is rubbed by a moistened finger. It was not one sustained note, but a multitude of tiny sounds, each clear and distinct itf itself; the sweetest treble mingled with the lowart; bass. On apply, ing the ear to the woodwork of the, boat the vibration was greatly increased in Volume The sound varied considerably at different points as we moved, across the lake, as if the number of animals from which they, proceeded was greater in particular spots, and occasionally we rowed out of hearing of them altogether, until on returning to the original locality the sounds were at once renewed."— American, Angle*.