MUSICAL FISHES;

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 128, 15 October 1875, Page 14

MUSICAL FISHES;

There is some truth in every fiction it is said ; and as a proof of this, we ,remark that the story of the sirens, or mermaids, who charmed ancient mariners with their liquid melodies, is not without a grain of fact. Musical notes, linked together like the tones of an JEolian harp, do issue from the sea at certain seasons and in certain places. But it is actual fishes and mollusks, not mythical mermaids, that emit them. It is stated, in an article by Mr. John C. Gralton on the song of fishes, that fifty-two out of more than three thousand species of fishes are known to produce sound. The attention of but few observers has been called to the subject, and therefore only a scant measure of facts bearing- upon it has been elicited. Sir J. Emerson Tens ant, late Governor of Ceylon, has given an interesting account of his investigation into the matter when at Batticaloa, a place on the east coast of the island. He had heard it stated by fishermen that two species of mollusk, known by the Tamil name of oorie cooleero crado, or the crying shell, inhabited a neighboring lake, and during the dry season, when the water was low, produced sounds resembling the faint, sweet notes of the wind-harp. Proceeding to the spot, Sir E. Tennant took a boat, and, rowing on the lake by moonlight, had the pleasure of listening to the strange tones coming from the element on which he was floating. " They came up from the water," he says, " like the gentle thrill of a musical chord, or the faint vibration of a wine-glass 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 in itself ; the sweetest treble mingled with the lowest "bass. On applying the ear to the woodwork of the boat, the vibration was greatly increased in volume." The sounds could be localised, and were confined to particular points in the lake — thus giving color to the statement of the fishermen that they were produced by mollusks, and not by fishes. Similar sounds have been heard in the harbor of Bombay, and are alleged to proceed from a species of fish closely resembling in Bize and shape the fresh-water perch of Northern Europe. These sounds are described as " like the protracted booming af a distant bell, the dying cadence of an iEolian harp, the note of pitch-pipe or pitch-fork," or any other prolonged musical tone. They arose from the surface of the water in all directions, and were of equal strength wherever heard — showing they were emitted by singers capable of locomotion. ' _