GOBIOIDEI, DISCOCEPHALI, AND TÆNIOSOMI
=SUBORDER Gobioidei, the Gobies: Gobiidæ.=—The great family of
_Gobiidæ_, having no near relations among the spiny-rayed fishes, may be
here treated as forming a distinct suborder.
The chief characteristics of the family are the following: The ventral
fins are thoracic in position, each having one spine and five soft rays,
in some cases reduced to four, but never wanting. The ventral fins are
inserted very close together, the inner rays the longest, and in most
cases the two fins are completely joined, forming a single roundish fin,
which may be used as a sucking-disk in clinging to rocks. The
shoulder-girdle is essentially perch-like in form, the cranium is
usually depressed, the bones being without serrature. There is no
lateral line, the gill-openings are restricted to the sides, and the
spinous dorsal is always small, of feeble spines, and is sometimes
altogether wanting. There is no bony stay to the preopercle. The small
pharyngeals are separate, and the vertebræ usually in normal number, 10
+ 14 = 24.
The species are excessively numerous in the tropics and temperate zones,
being found in lakes, brooks, swamps, and bays, never far out in the
sea, and usually in shallow water. Many of them burrow in the mud
between or below tide-marks. Others live in swift waters like the
darters, which they much resemble. A few reach a length of a foot or
two, but most of the species rarely exceed three inches, and some of
them are mature at half an inch.
The largest species, _Philypnus dormitor_, the guavina de rio, is found
in the rivers of Mexico and the West Indies. It reaches a length of
nearly two feet and is valued as food. Unlike most of the others, in
this species there are teeth on the vomer. Other related forms of the
subfamily of _Eleotrinæ_, having the ventral fins separate, are
_Eleotris pisonis_, a common river-fish everywhere in tropical America;
_Eleotris fusca_, a river-fish abounding from Tahiti and Samoa to
Hindostan; _Dormitator maculatus_, the stout-bodied guavina-mapo of the
West Indian regions, with the form of a small carp. _Guavina guavina_ of
Cuba is another species of this type, and numerous other species having
separate ventrals are found in the East Indies, the West Indies, and in
the islands of Polynesia. Some species, as _Valenciennesia strigata_ of
the East Indies and _Vireosa hanæ_ of Japan, are very gracefully
colored. One genus, _Eviota_, is composed of numerous species, all
minute, less than an inch in length. These abound in the crevices in
coral-heads. _Eviota epiphanes_ is found in Hawaii, the others farther
south. _Hypseleotris guntheri_, of the rivers and springs of Polynesia,
swims freely in the water, like a minnow, never hugging the bottom as
usual among gobies.
[Illustration:
FIG. 412.—Guavina de Rio, _Philypnus dormitor_ (Bloch & Schneider).
Puerto Rico.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 413.—Dormeur, _Eleotris pisonis_ Gmelin. Tortugas, Fla.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 414.—Guavina mapo, _Dormitator maculatus_ (Schneider). Puerto
Rico.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 415.—_Vireosa hanæ_ Jordan & Snyder. Misaki, Japan.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 416.—Esmeralda de Mar, _Gobionellus oceanicus_ (Pallas). Puerto
Rico.
]
Of the typical gobies having the ventrals united we can mention but a
few of the myriad forms, different species being abundant alike in fresh
and salt waters in all warm regions. In Europe _Gobius jozo_, _Gobius
ophiocephalus_, and many others are common species. The typical genus
_Gobius_ is known by its united ventrals, and by the presence of silken
free rays on the upper part of the pectoral fin. _Mapo soporator_ swarms
about coral reefs in both Indies. _Gobionellus oceanicus_, the esmeralda
or emerald-fish, is notable for its slender body and the green spot over
its tongue. _Gobiosoma alepidotum_ and other species are scaleless.
_Barbulifer ceuthœcus_ lives in the cavities of sponges. _Coryphopterus
similis_, a small goby, swarms in almost every brook of Japan. The
species of _Pterogobius_ are beautifully colored, banded with white or
black, or striped with red or blue. _Pterogobius virgo_ and _Pterogobius
daimio_ of Japan are the most attractive species. Species of
_Cryptocentrus_ are also very prettily colored.
[Illustration:
FIG. 417.—_Pterogobius daimio_ Jordan & Snyder. Misaki, Japan.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 418.—Darter Goby, _Aboma etheostoma_ Jordan. Mazatlan, Mex.
]
Of the species burrowing in mud the most interesting is the long-jawed
goby, _Gillichthys mirabilis_. In this species the upper jaw is greatly
prolonged, longer than the head, as in _Opisthognathus_ and _Neoclinus_.
In the "American Naturalist" for August, 1877, Mr. W. N. Lockington says
of the long-jawed goby:
"I call it the long-jawed goby, as its chief peculiarity consists in its
tremendous length of jaw. A garpike has a long jaw, and so has an
alligator, and it is not unlikely that the title will call up in the
minds of some who read this the idea of a terrible mouth, armed with a
bristling row of teeth. This would be a great mistake, for our little
fish has no teeth worth bragging about, and does not open his mouth any
wider than a well-behaved fish should do. The great difference between
his long jaws and those of a garpike is that the latter's project
forward, while those of our goby are prolonged backward immensely.
"The long-jawed goby was discovered by Dr. J. G. Cooper in the Bay of
San Diego, among seaweed growing on small stones at the wharf, and in
such position that it must have been out of the water from three to six
hours daily, though kept moist by the seaweed.
[Illustration:
FIG. 419.—Long-jawed Goby. _Gillichthys mirabilis_ Cooper. Santa
Barbara.
]
"On a recent occasion a single _Gillichthys_, much larger than any of
the original types, was presented by a gentleman who said that the fish,
which was new to him, was abundant upon his ranch in Richardson's Bay,
in the northern part of the Bay of San Francisco; that the Chinamen dug
them up and ate them, and that he had had about eleven specimens cooked,
and found them good, tasting, he thought, something like eels. The
twelfth specimen he had preserved in alcohol, in the interest of natural
science. This gentleman had the opportunity of observing something of
the mode of life of these fishes, and informed us that their holes,
excavated in the muddy banks of tidal creeks, increase in size as they
go downward, so that the lower portion is below the water-level, or at
least sufficiently low to be kept wet by the percolation from the
surrounding mud.
"When the various specimens now acquired were placed side by side, the
difference in the relative length of their jaws was very conspicuous,
for while in the smallest it was about one-fifth of the total length, in
the largest it exceeded one-third.
"As the fish had now been found in two places in the bay, I thought I
would try to find it also, and to this end sallied out one morning,
armed with a spade, and commenced prospecting in a marsh at Berkeley,
not far from the State University. For a long time I was unsuccessful,
as I did not know by what outward signs their habitations could be
distinguished, and the extent of mud-bank left bare by the retreating
tide was, as compared with my powers of delving, practically limitless.
"At last, toward evening, while digging in the bend of a small creek, in
a stratum of soft, bluish mud, and at a depth of about a foot below a
small puddle, I found five small fishes, which at first I believed to
belong to an undescribed species, so little did they resemble the
typical _G. mirabilis_, but which proved, upon a closer examination, to
be the young of that species. There was the depressed, broad head, the
funnel-shaped ventral 'disk' formed by the union of the two ventral
fins, and the compressed tail of the long-jawed goby, but where were the
long jaws? The jaws were, of course, in their usual place, but their
prolongations had only just begun to grow along the sides of the head,
and were not noticeable unless looked for. A comparison of the various
specimens proved conclusively that the strange-looking appendage is
developed during the growth of the fish, as will be seen by the
following measurements of four individuals:
"In the smallest specimen the maxillary expansion extends beyond the
orbit for a distance about equal to that which intervenes between the
anterior margin of the orbit and the tip of the snout; in No. 2 it
reaches to the posterior margin of the preoperculum; in No. 3 it ends
level with the gill-opening; while in the largest individual it passes
the origin of the pectoral and ventral fins.
"What can be the use of this long fold of skin and cartilage, which is
not attached to the head except where it joins the mouth, and which,
from its gradual development and ultimate large dimensions, must
certainly serve some useful purpose?
"Do not understand that I mean that every part of a creature is of use
to it in its present mode of life, for, as all naturalists know, there
are in structural anatomy, just as in social life, cases of _survival_;
remains of organs which were at some former time more developed,
parallel in their nature to such survivals in costume as the two buttons
on the back of a man's coat, once useful for the attachment of a
sword-belt. But in this fish we have no case of survival, but one of
unusual development; the family (_Gobiidæ_) to which it belongs presents
no similar case, although its members have somewhat similar habits, and
the conviction grows upon us, as we consider the subject, that the long
jaws serve some useful purpose in the economy of the creature. In view
of the half-terrestrial life led by this fish, I am inclined to suspect
that the expansion of the upper jaw may serve for the retention of a
small quantity of water, which, slowly trickling downward into the mouth
and gills, keeps the latter moist when, from an unusually low tide or a
dry season, the waters of its native creek fail, perhaps for several
hours, to reach the holes in which the fishes dwell. It may be objected
to this view that, were such an appendage necessary or even useful,
other species of _Gobiidæ_, whose habits are similar, would show traces
of a similar adaptation. This, however, by no means follows. Nature has
many ways of working out the same end; and it must be remembered that
every real species, when thoroughly known, differs somewhat in habits
from its congeners, or at least from its family friends. To take an
illustration from the mammalia. The chimpanzee and the spider-monkey are
both quadrumanous and both arboreal, yet the end which is attained in
the former by its more perfect hands is reached in the latter by its
prehensile tail.
"Why may not the extremely long channel formed by the jaw of this rather
abnormal member of the goby family be another mode of provision for the
requirements of respiration?"
Of the Asiatic genera, _Periophthalmus_ and _Boleophthalmus_ are
especially notable. In these mud-skippers the eyes are raised on a short
stalk, the fins are strong, and the animal has the power of skipping
along over the wet sands and mud, even skimming with great speed over
the surface of the water. It chases its insect prey among rocks, leaves,
and weeds, and out of the water is as agile as a lizard. Several species
of these mud-skippers are known on the coasts of Asia and Polynesia,
_Periophthalmus barbarus_ and _Boleophthalmus chinensis_ being the best
known. _Awaous crassilabris_ is the common oopu, or river goby, of the
Hawaiian streams, and _Lentipes stimpsoni_ is the mountain oopu, capable
of clinging to the rocks in the rush of torrents. _Paragobiodon
echinocephalus_ is a short thick-set goby with very large head, found in
crevices of coral reefs of Polynesia.
[Illustration:
FIG. 420.—Pond-skipper, _Boleophthalmus chinensis_ (Osbeck). Bay of
Tokyo, Japan. (Eye-stalks sunken in preservation.)
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 421.—Mud-skippy, _Periophthalmus oarbarus_ (L.). Mouth of
Vaisigono River, Apia, Samoa.
]
In numerous interesting species the first dorsal fin is wanting or much
reduced. The crystal goby, _Crystallogobius nilssoni_, of Europe is one
of this type, with the body translucent. Equally translucent is the
little Japanese shiro-uwo, or whitefish, _Leucopsarion petersi_.
_Mistichthys luzonius_ of the Philippine Islands, another diaphanous
goby, is said to be the smallest of all vertebrates, being mature at
half an inch in length. This minute fish is so very abundant as to
become an important article of food in Luzon. The rank of
"smallest-known vertebrate" has been claimed in turn for the lancelet
(_Asymmetron lucayanum_), the top minnow, _Heterandria formosa_, and the
dwarf sunfish (_Elassoma zonatum_). _Mistichthys luzonius_ is smaller
than any of these, but the diminutive gobies, called _Eviota_, found in
interstices of coral rocks are equally small, and there are several
brilliant but minute forms in the reefs of Samoa. The snake-like
_Eutæniichthys gilli_ of Japanese rivers is scarcely larger, though over
an inch long. _Typhlogobius californiensis_, "the blindfish of Point
Loma," is a small goby, colorless and blind, found clinging in dark
crevices of rock about Point Loma and Dead Man's Island in southern
California.
[Illustration:
FIG. 422.—_Eutæniichthys gillii_ Jordan & Snyder. Tokyo, Japan.
]
Its eyes are represented by mere rudiments, their loss being evidently
associated with the peculiar habit of the species, which clings to the
under side of stones in relative darkness, though in very shallow water.
The flesh is also colorless, the animal appearing pink in life.
In the Japanese species _Luciogobus guttatus_, common under stones and
along the coast, the spinous dorsal, weak in numerous other species,
finally vanishes altogether. Other gobies are band-shaped or eel-shaped,
the dorsal spines being continuous with the soft rays. Among these are
the barreto of Cuba, _Gobioides broussoneti_, and in Japan _Tænioides
lacepedei_ and _Trypauchen wakæ_, the latter species remarkable for its
strong canines. Fossil gobies are practically unknown. A few fragments,
otoliths, and partial skeletons in southern Europe have been referred to
_Gobius_, but no other genus is represented.
The family of _Oxudercidæ_ contains one species, _Oxuderces dentatus_, a
small goby-like fish from China. It is an elongate fish, without ventral
fins, and with very short dorsal and anal.
=Suborder Discocephali, the Shark-suckers: Echeneididæ.=—Next to the
gobies, for want of a better place, we may mention the singular group of
_Discocephali_ (δίσκος, disk; κεφαλή, head). In this group the first
dorsal fin is transformed into a peculiar laminated sucking-disk, which
covers the whole top of the head and the nape. In other respects the
structure does not diverge very widely from the percoid type, there
being a remarkable resemblance in external characters to the Scombroid
genus _Rachycentron_. But the skeleton shows no special affinity to
_Rachycentron_ or to any perciform fish. The basis of the cranium is
simple, and in the depression of the head with associated modifications
the _Discocephali_ approach the gobies and blennies rather than the
mackerel-like forms.
[Illustration:
FIG. 423.—Sucking-fish, or Pegador, _Leptecheneis naucrates_
(Linnæus). Virginia.
]
The _Discocephali_ comprise the single family of shark-suckers or
remoras, the _Echeneididæ_. All the species of this group are pelagic
fishes, widely diffused in the warm seas. All cling by their cephalic
disks to sharks, barracudas, and other free-swimming fishes, and are
carried about the seas by these. They do not harm the shark except by
slightly impeding its movement. They are carnivorous fishes, feeding on
sardines, young herring, and the like. When a shark, taken on the hook,
is drawn out of the water the sucking-fish leaves it instantly, and is
capable of much speed in swimming on its own account. These fishes are
all dusky in color, the belly as dark as the back, so as to form little
contrast to the color of the shark.
The commonest species, _Leptecheneis naucrates_, called pegapega or
pegador in Cuba, reaches a length of about two feet and is almost
cosmopolitan in its range, being found exclusively on the larger sharks,
notably on _Carcharias lamia_. It has 20 to 22 plates in its disk, and
the sides are marked by a dusky lateral band.
Almost equally widely distributed is the smaller remora, or shark-sucker
(_Echeneis remora_), with a stouter body and about 18 plates in the
cephalic disk. This species is found in Europe, on the coast of New
York, in the West Indies, in California, and in Japan, but is nowhere
abundant. Another widely distributed species is _Remorina albescens_
with 13 plates in its disk. _Remoropsis brachyptera_, with 15 plates and
a long soft dorsal, is also occasionally taken. _Rhombochirus osteochir_
is a rare species of the Atlantic with 18 plates, having the pectoral
rays all enlarged and stiff. The louse-fish (_Phtheirichthys lineatus_)
is a small and slender remora having but 10 plates in its disk. It is
found attached, not to sharks, but to barracudas and spearfishes.
[Illustration:
FIG. 424.—_Rhombochirus osteochir_ (Cuv. & Val.). Wood's Hole, Mass.
]
A fossil remora is described from the Oligocene shales in Glarus,
Switzerland, under the name of _Opisthomyzon glaronensis_. It is
characterized by the small disk posteriorly inserted. Its vertebræ are
10 + 13 = 24 only. Dr. Storms gives the following account of this
species:
"A careful comparison of the proportion of all the parts of the skeleton
of the fossil _Echeneis_ with those of the living forms, such as
_Echeneis naucrates_ or _Echeneis remora_, shows that the fossil differs
nearly equally from both, and that it was a more normally shaped fish
than either of these forms. The head was narrower and less flattened,
the preoperculum wider, but its two jaws had nearly the same length. The
ribs, as also the neural and hæmal spines, were longer, the tail more
forked, and the soft dorsal fin much longer. In fact it was a more
compressed type, probably a far better swimmer than its living
congeners, as might be expected if the smallness of the adhesive disk is
taken into account."
Concerning the relations of the _Discocephali_ Dr. Gill has the
following pertinent remarks:
"The family of _Scomberoides_ was constituted by Cuvier for certain
forms of known organization, among which were fishes evidently related
to _Caranx_, but which had free dorsal spines. Dr. Günther conceived the
idea of disintegrating this family because, _inter alias_, the typical
_Scomberoides_ (family _Scombridæ_) have more than 24 vertebræ and
others (family _Carangidæ_) had just 24. The assumption of Cuvier as to
the relationship of _Elacate_ (_Rachycentron_) was repeated, but
inasmuch as it had 'more than 24 vertebræ' (it had 25 = 12 + 13) it was
severed from the free-spined _Carangidæ_ and associated with the
_Scombridæ_. _Elacate_ has an elongated body, flattened head, and a
longitudinal lateral band; therefore _Echeneis_ was considered to be
next allied to _Elacate_ and to belong to the same family. The very
numerous differences in structure between the two were entirely ignored,
and the reference of the _Echeneis_ to the _Scombridæ_ is simply due to
assumption piled on assumption. The collocation need not, therefore,
longer detain us. The possession by _Echeneis_ of the anterior oval
cephalic disk in place of a spinous dorsal fin would alone necessitate
the isolation of the genus as a peculiar family. But that difference is
associated with almost innumerable other peculiarities of the skeleton
and other parts, and in a logical system it must be removed far from the
_Scombridæ_, and probably be endowed with subordinal distinction. In all
essential respects it departs greatly from the type of structure
manifested in the _Scombridæ_ and rather approximates—but very
distantly—the _Gobioidea_ and _Blennioidea_. In those types we have in
some a tendency to flattening of the head, of anterior development of
the dorsal fin, a simple basis cranii, etc. Nevertheless there is no
close affinity, nor even tendency to the extreme modification of the
spinous dorsal exhibited by _Echeneis_. In view of all these facts
_Echeneis_, with its subdivisions, may be regarded as constituting not
only a family but a suborder.... Who can consistently object to the
proposition to segregate the _Echeneididæ_ as a suborder of
teleocephalous fishes? Not those who consider that the development of
three or four inarticulate rays (or even less) in the front of the
dorsal fin is sufficient to ordinarily differentiate a given form from
another with only one or two such. Certainly the difference between the
constituents of a disk and any rays or spines is much greater than the
mere development or atrophy of articulations. Not those who consider
that the manner of depression of spines, whether directly over the
following, or to the right or left alternately, are of cardinal
importance; for such differences, again, are manifestly of less
morphological significance than the factors of a suctorial disk.
Nevertheless there are doubtless many who will passively resist the
proposition because of a conservative spirit, and who will vaguely refer
to the development of the disk as being a 'teleological modification,'
and as if it were not an actual fact and a development correlated with
radical modifications of all parts of the skeleton at least. But
whatever may be the closest relations of _Echeneis_, or the systematic
value of its peculiarities, it is certain that it is not allied to
_Elacate_ any more than to hosts of scombroid, percoid, and kindred
fishes, and that it differs _in toto_ from it notwithstanding the claims
that have been made otherwise. It is true that there is a striking
resemblance, especially between the young—almost as great, for example,
as that between the placental mouse and the marsupial _Antechinomys_—but
the likeness is entirely superficial, and the scientific ichthyologist
should be no more misled than would be the scientific therologist by the
likeness of the marsupial and placental mammals."
=Suborder Tæniosomi, the Ribbon-fishes.=—The suborder _Tæniosomi_
(ταινία, ribbon; σῶμα, body), or ribbon-fishes, is made up of strange
inhabitants of the open seas, perhaps aberrant derivatives of the
mackerel stock. The body is greatly elongate, much compressed, extremely
fragile, covered with shining silvery skin. The ribbon-fishes live in
the open sea, probably at no very great depth, but are almost never
taken by collectors except when thrown on shore in storms or when
attacked by other fishes and dragged above or below their depth. When
found they are usually reported as sea-serpents, and although perfectly
harmless, they are usually at once destroyed by their ignorant captors.
The whole body is exceedingly fragile; the bones are porous, thin, and
light, containing scarcely any calcareous matter. In the _Tæniosomi_ the
ventral fins are thoracic, formed of one or a few soft rays. More
remarkable is the character of the caudal fin, which is always distorted
and usually not in line with the rest of the body. The teeth are small.
The general structure is not very different from that of the
cutlass-fishes, _Trichiuridæ_, and other degraded offshoots from the
scombroid group. The species are few and, from the nature of things,
very imperfectly known. Scarcely any specimens are perfectly preserved.
When dried the body almost disappears, both flesh and bones being
composed chiefly of water.
=The Oarfishes: Regalecidæ.=—The _Regalecidæ_, or oarfishes, have the
caudal fin obsolete and the ventrals reduced to long filaments,
thickened at the tip. The species reach a length of twenty or thirty
feet, and from their great size, slender forms, and sinuous motion have
been almost everywhere regarded as sea-serpents. The very long anterior
spines of the dorsal fin are tipped with red, and the fish is often and
not untruthfully described as a sea-serpent "having a horse's head with
a flaming red mane."
The great oarfish, _Regalecus glesne_ (see Fig. 237, Vol. I) was long
known to the common people of Norway as king of the herrings, it being
thought that to harm it would be to drive the herring to some other
coast. The name "king of the herrings" went into science as _Regalecus_,
from _rex_, king, and _halec_, herring. The Japanese fancy, which runs
in a different line, calls the creature "Dugunonuatatori," which means
the "cock of the palace under the sea."
The Atlantic oarfish is named _Regalecus glesne_, from the Norwegian
farm of Glesnæs, where the first recorded specimen, described by
Ascanius, was taken 130 years ago. Since then the species has been many
times found on the shores of Great Britain and Norway, and once at
Bermuda.
In this species the body is half-transparent, almost jelly-like, light
blue in color, with some darker cross-stripes, and the head has a long
jaw and a high forehead, suggesting the head of a horse. The dorsal fin
begins on the head, and the first few spines are very long, each having
a red tuft on the end. When the animal is alive these spines stand up
like a red mane.
The creature is harmless, weak in muscle as well as feeble in mind. It
lives in the deep seas, all over the world. After great storms it
sometimes comes ashore. Perhaps this is because for some reason it has
risen above its depth and so lost control of itself. When a deep-water
fish rises to the surface the change of pressure greatly affects it.
Reduction of pressure bursts its blood-vessels, its swim-bladder swells,
if it has one, and turns its stomach inside out. If a deep-water fish
gets above its depth it is lost, just as surely as a surface fish is
when it gets sunk to the depth of half a mile.
Sometimes, again, these deep-sea fishes rush to the shore to escape from
parasites, crustaceans that torture their soft flesh, or sharks that
would tear it.
Numerous specimens have been found in the Pacific, and to these several
names have been given, but the species are not at all clearly made out.
The oldest name is that of _Regalecus russelli_, for the naturalist
Patrick Russell, who took a specimen at Vizagapatam in 1788. I have seen
two large examples of _Regalecus_ in the museum at Tokio, and several
young ones have recently been stranded on the Island of Santa Catalina
in southern California. A specimen twenty-two feet long lately came
ashore at Newport in Orange County, California. The story of its capture
is thus told by Mr. Horatio J. Forgy, of Santa Ana, California:
"On the 22d of February, 1901, a Mexican Indian reported at Newport
Beach that about one mile up the coast he had landed a sea-serpent, and
as proof showed four tentacles and a strip of flesh about six feet long.
A crowd went up to see it, and they said it was about twenty feet long
and like a fish in some respects and like a snake in others. Mr.
Remsberg and I, on the following day, went up to see it, and in a short
time we gathered a crowd and with the assistance of Mr. Peabody prepared
the fish and took the picture you have received.
"It measured twenty-one feet and some inches in length, and weighed
about 500 or 600 pounds.
"The Indian, when he reported his discovery, said it was alive and in
the shallow water, and that he had landed it himself.
"This I very much doubt, but when it was first landed it was in a fine
state of preservation and could have easily been shipped to you, but he
had cut it to such an extent that shipment or preservation seemed out of
the question when we first saw it.
"At the time it came ashore an unusual number of peculiar fishes and
sharks were found. Among others, I found a small oarfish about three
feet long in a bad state of preservation in a piece of kelp. One side of
it was nearly torn off and the other side was decayed."
Mr. C. F. Holder gives this account of the capture of oarfishes in
southern California:
"From a zoological point of view the island of Santa Catalina, which
lies eighteen miles off the coast of Los Angeles County, southern
California, is very interesting, many rare animals being found there.
Every winter the dwellers of the island find numbers of argonaut-shells,
and several living specimens have been secured, one for a time living in
the aquarium which is maintained here for the benefit of students and
the entertainment of visitors. A number of rare and interesting fishes
wander inshore from time to time. Several years ago I found various
Scopeloid fishes, which up to that time had been considered rare, and
during the past few years I have seen one oarfish (_Regalecus russelli_)
alive, while another was brought to me dead. From reports I judge that a
number of these very rare fishes have been observed here. The first was
of small size, not over two feet in length, and was discovered swimming
in shallow water along the beach of Avalon Bay. I had an opportunity to
observe the radiant creature before it died. Its 'topknot'—it can be
compared to nothing else—was a vivid red or scarlet mass of seeming
plumes—the dorsal fins, which merged into a long dorsal fin, extending
to the tail. The color of the body was a brilliant silver sheen splashed
with equally vivid black zebra-like stripes, which gave the fish a most
striking appearance.
"The fish was a fragile and delicate creature, a very ghost of a fish,
which swam along where the water gently lapped the sands with an
undulatory motion, looking like one of its names—the ribbon-fish. The
fortunate finder of this specimen could not be persuaded to give it up
or sell it, and it was its fate to be pasted upon a piece of board,
dried in the sun as a 'curio,' where, as if in retaliation at the
desecration of so rare a specimen, it soon disappeared.
"This apparently was the first oarfish ever seen in the United States,
so at least Dr. G. Brown Goode wrote me at the time that it had not been
reported. In 1899 another oarfish was brought to me, evidently having
been washed in after a storm and found within a few yards of the former
at Avalon. The discoverer of this specimen also refused to allow it to
be properly preserved, or to donate or sell it to any one who would have
sent it to some museum, but, believing it valuable as a 'curio,' also
impaled it, the delicate creature evaporating under the strong heat of
the semitropic sun.
"This, as stated, was the second fish discovered, and during the past
winter (1900) a fine large specimen came in at Newport Beach, being
reported by H. J. Forgy, of Santa Ana. The newspapers announced that a
Mexican had found a young sea-serpent at Newport, and investigation
showed that, as in hundreds of similar instances, the man had found a
valuable prize without being aware of it. According to the account, the
discoverer first saw the fish alive in the surf and hauled it ashore.
Being ignorant of its value, he cut it up, bringing in a part of the
scarlet fins and a slice of the flesh. This he showed to some men, and
led the way to where lay the mutilated remains of one of the finest
oar-or ribbon-fishes ever seen. The specimen was twenty-one feet in
length, and its weight estimated at five hundred pounds. The finder had
so mutilated it that the fish was ruined for almost any purpose. If he
had packed it in salt, the specimen would have returned him the
equivalent of several months' labor. Apparently the man had cut it up in
wanton amusement.
"This recalls a similar incident. I was on one occasion excavating at
San Clemente Island, and had remarked that it was a singular fact that
all the fine stone ollas were broken. 'Nothing strange about that,' said
a half-breed, one of the party. 'I used to herd sheep here, and we
smashed mortars and ollas to pass away time.'"
[Illustration:
FIG. 425.—Oarfish, _Regalecus russelli_, on the beach at Newport,
Orange Co., Cal. (Photograph by C. P. Remsberg.)
]
=The Dealfishes: Trachypteridæ.=—The family of _Trachypteridæ_ comprises
the dealfishes, creatures of fantastic form and silvery coloration,
smaller than the oarfishes and more common, but of similar habit.
Just as in Norway the fantastic oarfish was believed to be the king of
the herrings and cherished as such, so among the Indians of Puget Sound
another freak fish is held sacred as the king of the salmon. The people
about Cape Flattery believe that if one does any harm to this fish the
salmon will at once leave the shores. This fable led the naturalists who
first discovered this fish to give it its name of _Trachypterus
rex-salmonorum_.
In Europe a similar species (_Trachypterus atlanticus_) has long been
known by the name of dealfish, or vogmar, neither of these names having
any evident propriety.
The dealfish is one of the most singular of all the strange creatures of
the sea. It reaches a length of three or four feet. Its body is thin as
a knife and would be transparent were it not covered over with a shining
white pigment which gives to the animal the luster of burnished silver.
On this white surface is a large black blotch or two, but no other
colors. The head is something like that of the oarfish, to which animal
the dealfish bears a close relationship. Both have small teeth and
neither could bite if it would, and neither wants to, for they are
creatures of the most inoffensive sort. On the head of the dealfish,
where the oarfish has its mane, is a long, streamer-like fin. At the end
of the tail, instead of the ordinary caudal fin, is a long, slim fin
which projects directly upwards at right angles to the direction of the
back-bone. No other fish shows this strange peculiarity.
The dealfish swims in the open sea close to the surface of the water. It
does not often come near shore, but it is occasionally blown on the
beach by storms. _Trachypterus rex-salmonorum_ has been recorded two or
three times from Puget Sound and twice from California. The finest
specimen known, the one from which our figure is taken, was secured off
the Farallones in 1895 by a fisherman named W. C. Knox, and by him sent
to Stanford University. The specimen is perfect in all its parts, a
condition rare with these fragile creatures, and its picture gives a
good idea of the mysterious king of the salmon.
[Illustration:
FIG. 426.—Dealfish, or King of the Salmon, _Trachypterus
rex-salmonorum_ Jordan & Gilbert. Family _Trachypteridæ_. (From a
specimen taken off the Farallones.)
]
Four of these fishes have been obtained on the coast of Japan, and have
been described and figured by the present writer in the annals of the
Imperial University of Tokyo. These are different from the California
species and are named _Trachypterus ishikawæ_, but they show the same
bright silver color and the same streamers on the head and tail.
Probably they, too, in Japan are kings of something or other, or perhaps
silver swans from the submarine palace, for along such lines the
Japanese fancy is more likely to run.
The young of the dealfish has the caudal symmetrical, and the dorsal
spines and ventral rays produced in very long streamers.
According to Goode and Bean, the dealfishes are "true deep-sea fishes,
which live at very great depths, and are only found when floating dead
on the surface or washed ashore by the waves. Almost nothing is known of
their habits except through Nilsson's observations in the far north.
This naturalist, as well as Olafson, appears to have had the opportunity
of observing them in life. They say that they approach the shore at
flood-tide on sandy, shelving bottoms, and are often left by the
retreating waves. Nilsson's opinion is that its habits resemble those of
the flatfishes, and that they move with one side turned obliquely
upward, the other toward the ground; and he says that they have been
seen on the bottom in two or three fathoms of water, where the fishermen
hook them up with the implements employed to raise dead seals, and that
they are slow swimmers. This is not necessarily the case, however, for
the removal of pressure and the rough treatment by which they were
probably washed ashore would be demoralizing, to say the least.
_Trichiurus_, a fish similar in form, is a very strong, swift swimmer,
and so is _Regalecus_. Whether or not the habits of _Trachypterus
arcticus_, on which these observations were made, are a safe guide in
regard to the other forms is a matter of some doubt, but it is certain
that they live far from the surface, except near the Arctic Circle, and
that they only come ashore accidentally. They have never been taken by
the deep-sea dredge or trawl-net, and indeed perfect specimens are very
rare, the bodies being very soft and brittle, the bones and fin-rays
exceedingly fragile. A considerable number of species have been
described, but in most instances each was based on one or two specimens.
It is probable that future studies may be as fruitful as that of Emery,
who, by means of a series of twenty-three specimens, succeeded in
uniting at least three of the Mediterranean species which for half a
century or more had been regarded as distinct. The common species of the
eastern Atlantic, _Trachypterus atlanticus_, is not rare, one or more
specimens, according to Günther, being secured along the coast of
northern Europe after almost every severe gale. We desire to quote the
recommendation of Dr. Günther, and to strongly urge upon any one who may
be so fortunate as to secure one of these fishes that no attempt should
be made to keep it entire, but that it should be cut into short lengths
and preserved in the strongest spirits, each piece wrapped separately in
muslin."
The family of _Stylephoridæ_ is known from a single specimen of the
species, _Stylephorus chordatus_, taken off Cuba in 1790. In this form
the tail ends in a long, whip-like appendage, twice as long as the head.
No fossil dealfishes or oarfishes are known.