ENGLISH EXPEDITION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 110, 12 May 1938, Page 7

ENGLISH EXPEDITION

SEARCH FOR RARE FISH PERILS TO BE BRAVED LONDON, April 14. An expedition is about to leave London for South America, to search for rare fish. The party will include a banker, a stockbroker, and a shipowner, and on their 20,000 miles journey they will have to brave fever, deadly snakes, and hostile tribes. Their trophies will be tiny fish—no more than 2in. in length—each weighing about two drachms, and worth more than £lOO an ounce. “The expedition will cost at least £2000,” Mr. Charles Schiller, who has organised it, said this week. He is the man who looks after the Buckingham Palace tank of tropical fish. “I have organised a number of similar expeditions in the past, but have never been on one so big. "Rare fish, such as the tiny black neons from Sumatra, fetch over £lOO each in this country. The specimens we shall see in back-waters of the Amazon, never before penetrated by white people, will be new to Europe. "According to what we have heard, if we only procure a few of these fish, each should be worth between £lOO and £2OO. At the moment I have 23 men, working night and day. constructing 200 tanks and other equipment for the expedition”