Fish curing

“ Others become poisonous by feeding on sea-centipedes—curious creatures which twine themselves round the coral, and resemble yards of black string with myriad tiny legs. There are certain fish which may be eaten with impunity on one isle, and are positively deadly if caught on other reefs. The natives themselves have sometimes died by rashly trusting to their experience of their own fishing-grounds, and so venturing to eat the identical fish caught elsewhere. ”

“ The native fishermen, well acquainted with the dangerous nature of these fishes, carefully avoid handling them; but it often happens that persons wading with naked feet in the sea, step upon the fish, which generally lies hidden in the sand. One or more of the erected spines penetrate the skin, and the poison is injected into the wound by the pressure of the foot on the poison-bags. Death has not rarely been the result. ”

“ When he has filed off enough fish flesh to satisfy his hunger he lets go, and goes off about his business. The fish, who does not know what hurt him, goes off to get well if he can. Usually he can not, for the water of the brook is full of the germs of little toadstool-like plants, and these fasten themselves on the fish's wounds and make them bigger and bigger, until at last the cavity of the abdomen is pierced and little creatures of many kinds, plant and animal, go in there and plunder all this fish's internal organs, to carry them away for their own purposes. ”

“ Even in streams where a successful deposition of the ova has been accomplished, there never appears, as far as my observations have gone, any disposition in the parent-fish to return to the sea. Their instinct still prompts them to keep swimming up-stream, until you often find them with their noses worn quite off, their heads bruised and battered, fins and tail ragged and torn, bodies emaciated, thin, and flabby; the bright silvery tints dull and leaden in hue, a livid red streak extending along each side from head to tail, in which large ulcerous sores have eaten into the very vitals. ”

“ It is evident that for commercial purposes where a cheap food is desirable a method of this kind could not be practiced. It is a question which the hygienist as well as the practical man should consider, that is, whether or not it is possible to slaughter the fish and, as soon as they are taken, dress them, pack their carcasses in ice, and in this way deliver them to the markets. Where fish are used for canning or salting purposes they are often slaughtered as soon as caught. This is particularly true of herring captured in the Potomac and Susquehanna rivers. ”

“ The meat of the fish must be firm and must not show any form of decay, neither in smell nor taste. The skin must be tight on the fish. Both eyes must be clear, not milky or sunken. The gills must be red and slimy. Fish frozen very hard are not especially good. The meat of middle sized fish is more savory than that of large ones.
When you buy live fish, take the lively ones, not those that swim on their side or back. The bought fish are best killed in the market. The quickest way of killing a fish is to stun it with a blow on the head or neck, then cutting, its throat and its tail. ”

“ At these distances the bodies of the fish become covered with bruises, in which patches of white fungus are developed; their fins become mutilated, their eyes are often destroyed, parasitic worms gather in their gills, they become emaciated, the flesh becomes white from the loss of the oil, and they all die as soon as the spawning act is accomplished, often before. ”

“ Fishes are readily kept in captivity in properly constructed aquaria. Unless injured in capture or transportation, there are few species outside the deep seas which cannot adapt themselves to life in a well-constructed aquarium.
Reproduction of Lost Parts.—Fishes have little power to reproduce lost parts. Only the tips of fleshy structures are thus restored after injury. Sometimes a fish in which the tail has been bitten off will survive the injury. The wound will heal, leaving the animal with a truncate body, fin-rays sometimes arising from the scars.
[Pg 151] ”

“ They have far more deadly devices for massacre by wholesale. Into the throat of some lovely stream is tipped a barrow-load of quicklime: down goes the poisonous dose, dealing out death and destruction to every fish, great or small, in that stream: and, if that is not enough, or if the pool is long and sullen, he proceeds to blow up its uttermost depths with dynamite. And in the hot summer months, when the streams, at lowest summer-level, run almost dry, the heaviest trout are decimated by "tickling." ”

“ When free, its manners seem almost agitated as it darts eagerly on its prey, swallowing it so impetuously that it sometimes seizes the hook and bait which the fisherman has put out to take the fish, and thus wounds itself and becomes a captive. ”

“ In such position it is difficult for the inexperienced to detect the fish until by misadventure it is trodden on, in which circumstance one of two manoeuvres is adopted. Either it flaps and flounders in the slush so that the intruder is startled and jumps clear, or else it lashes out with its whip-like tail in the endeavour to bring into play its serrated weapon, charged with pain, and fearsome on account of the blood-poisoning effect of the mucus with which it is coated. ”

“ Before that time they are scarcely able to move, and thousands of them fall a prey, not only to the other fish, but to the larvae of aquatic insects which prey upon them very greedily. As I happen to know from my own observations, the larva of the stone fly (May fly of Lancashire) and those of all the larger ephemera (drakes) , to say nothing of the fresh-water shrimps, swarm in all the spawning beds, and no doubt destroy myriads of the ova. All these would be saved by proper precautions and well formed spawning-boxes, with good supplies of spring water to feed them. ”

“ Sometimes a single ill-timed spate will destroy millions of eggs by tearing them from the gravel and laying them bare to a whole host of enemies. [2] These enemies are in the air, on the land, in the water, and nothing short of an enumeration of them can convey any idea of their numbers and wholesale methods of destruction. In addition to the yearling salmon and trout which for ever haunt the skirts of the spawning grounds, there are always a number of mature unfertile fish which for a part of the year live entirely upon the spawn. ”

“ Fishes indeed, in most instances, show but little choice in the selection of their food, and their digestive powers are so strong and rapid as speedily to dissolve all animal substances. They greedily swallow other fishes, notwithstanding the sharp spines or bony ridges with which they may be armed; they attack and devour crabs and shell-fish, gulping them entire, without the least regard to the feelings of their families ”

“ A few days later my host added still more to my indebtedness to him by giving one of my daughters, who had never killed a salmon, though a very successful angler for big trout, the chance of trying the river.
On her first and second days she drew a blank, but on the third day killed three fish weighing 20 lb., 19 lb., and 15 lb., all on the same fly, a silver doctor. Who says there is nothing in luck? The day I killed my big fish was the third day in the third week of the third month of the fishing season; he was the third fish killed on that day, and I hooked him at my third cast. ”

“ The plume-hunters, taking advantage of this combination of circumstances, collect quantities of fish, poison them, and then scatter them over the birds’ feeding-grounds. Occasionally poisoned shrimp are used if the inundations extend beyond the usual time. This method is, of course, cheaper than shooting; the birds are not frightened away as they are by the loud reports of guns, and the success of such relentless persecution must be obvious. ”

“ It often enters the fishermen's nets for the purpose of plundering them of the entangled fish; and when the fishermen attack it, and it cannot dart through the net, it fights like a lion. They maul it with hand-spikes, spars, and such heavy timber as they may have in the boats; but even when it is landed, and apparently dead, they are not quite safe from its bite." Its teeth resemble the canines and molars of quadrupeds, and their strength is so great as to break down and crush the hardest shells, and even stones. ”

“ Its tail is long, flexible and slender and is used as a rudder, and as a weapon. When lying in wait for its prey at the bottom of the sea, and it has no desire to change its position, a rapid and sudden stroke of this formidable weapon, armed with hooked bones on its upper surface, arrests its victim by wounding or killing it, without disturbing the mud or sea-weed by which the Fish is covered. This species often grows to be quite large, and their flesh is firm and nourishing, but the larger specimens seldom approach inhabited shores. ”

“ They have the power of producing a smarting pain, just like that caused by the nettle found on land. For the purpose of seeking its prey, it contracts and stiffens itself to the utmost possible extent, and then, as a small fish swims past, it will suddenly spread out its branches, and so seize and devour it. At another time it will assume the appearance of being quite withered away, and let itself be tossed to and fro by the waves like a piece of sea-weed, until it happens to touch a fish. The moment it does so, the fish goes to rub itself against a rock, to get rid of the itching ”

“ The steel-trap is set and concealed in such a manner that the animal must step on its pan in passing over it to secure the bait. In trapping such wary animals as the sable, marten, mink, otter or beaver, great care is taken to obliterate all signs of the trap and of human presence, the scent of the hands being neutralized by smoking the traps or avoided by the use of gloves. In North America castoreum, musk, as afoetida, oil of anise and common fish-oil are used to entice the victims to the traps. ”

“ This net fishing is continued all winter, so that not only are thousands of large fish destroyed in the act of spawning, or just after doing so, but millions of the young, the seed of the harvest, are slain without profit, being left on the ice to freeze.
Spearing is also terribly fatal. None can escape the sharp eye of the spearsman, and although many more are wounded than killed they rarely recover, for their natural enemies, the eels, are ever on the alert for such occurrences, and fastening themselves upon{189} the wounded spot suck out the little life that is left. ”

“ They should be bought alive, killed by boiling water, cleaned by stirring them briskly round in the bucket in which they are killed, and after rinsing them in cold water, rubbed in a cloth. They should then have the points of their mouths and the tips of their tails cut off, taking care to remove as little as possible, else the gravy is lost, and the nature of these fish is the same as a snipe. ”

“ If, in chasing their prey, or for any other reason, they rise to a considerable distance above the floor of the ocean, the gases of their swimming-bladder become greatly expanded, and their specific gravity reduced. If the muscles are not strong enough to drive the body downwards, the fish, becoming more and more distended as it goes, is gradually killed on its long and involuntary journey to the surface of the sea. The deep-sea fish, then, are exposed to a danger that no other animals in this world are subject to—namely, that of tumbling upwards. ”

“ Another serious danger of the reef arises from the various voracious sea-eels, which coil themselves up in the interstices of the coral and dart out to seize any prey which comes within reach. I was severely bitten myself one day while incautiously feeling for small fish; but many natives have thus been maimed for life, the loss of a few fingers being a comparative trifle. ”

“ They are the special enemies of the fisherman, injuring his nets, removing the hooks from his lines, and spoiling his fish for the market by biting pieces out of them as they hang on his lines. They are however eaten, both fresh and salted, by fishermen, especially on the west coast of England, and they are sold regularly in the French markets. ”

“ That most dangerous contamination of the water by the Myxosporidia from the ulcers cannot of course be stopped entirely, but it is evident that it will be less if all fishermen are impressed with the importance of destroying all diseased and dead fish instead of throwing them back into the water. ”

“ The hake, normally a deep-water fish, ventures inshore in pursuit of herrings, pilchards, mackerel.
The ling, turbot, brill, dog fish live entirely upon small fish. The dog fish swarms on certain fishing grounds and is often a serious pest to the drift-net fishermen, destroying their nets as well as the fish that are attached to them.
The whiting, like the cod, feeds upon small fish, and upon crustacea and mollusca. ”

“ We know of no pestilential malady attacking fishes, such as those which attack man, and horses and oxen among the quadrupedal vivipara, and certain species of other genera, domesticated and wild; but fishes do seem to suffer from sickness; and fishermen infer this from the fact that at times fishes in poor condition, and looking as though they were sick, and of altered colour, are caught in a large haul of well-conditioned fish of their own species. So much for sea-fishes. ”

“ Thus they may continue for a few hours if the river is a good sized one and the fish plentiful, for at the beginning a great number of fish probably dart up side creeks, thus escaping from the effects of the poison, and when all the fish in the main stream have fallen a prey, these lurkers must be sought out. ”

“ Several poisonous fish are common near our coast. You may have seen the one called the Great Weaver, also its small cousin, the Sting Fish. The Weaver is dreaded by fishermen; for the spines on its back fin, as well as the one on its gill-cover, cause poisoned wounds. They are grooved, to hold a very poisonous slime.
Some fish have the power to kill their prey, and stun their enemies, at a distance! Instead of a spiny defence, they are armed with electricity! The best-known sea-fish of this sort is the Electric Ray, also called the Cramp Fish or Torpedo (see p. 48) . ”