The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XII, No. 2 [‎268r] (38/154)

OCEAN, AND ITS RELATION TO OTHER OCEANOGRAPHICAL PHENOMENA. 12{>
which live at the bottom of the sea. Some remarkable instances of this
kind have been observed between depths of 50 and 100 fathoms off the
eastern coast of the United States.
Lieut.-Commander Tanner, commanding the United States Fish Com
mission steamer Albatross, reports that “ on the morning of July 20,
1884, in lat. 37° 47' N., long. 74° 15' W., near the 100-fathom line, we
passed numerous dead octopods floating on the surface. This unusual
sight attracted immediate notice and no little surprise among those who
knew their habits, as it was not suspected at first that they were dead.
\\ e lowered a boat and picked up three or four specimens, which we were
unable to identify, but in general appearance they resembled Alloposm
mollis (Verrill) of unusually large size. These dead cephalopods were
seen frequently on the 100-fathom line and outside of it, from the
position given above to the meridian of Montauk point, a distance of
180 miles. They were less numerous, however, as we went to the
noithward and eastward. Several dead squid were seen also, and two
specimens were picked up with a scoop-net.” *
A still more remarkable instance of this kind is furnished in the
well-known case of the destruction of the tile-fish in the same locality in
the spring of 1882.f In the months of March and April, 1882, vessels
arriving at Philadelphia, New York, and Boston reported having passed
large numbers of dead or dying fish scattered over an area of many
miles, and fiom descriptions and the occasional specimens brought in, it
was evident that the great majority of these were tile-fish. Naturally,
these fish were not evenly distributed over all the area in which they
were seen, some observers reporting them as scattering, and others as at
times so numerous that there would be as many as fifty on the space of
a rod square. As one account after another came in, it became apparent
that a vast destruction of fish had taken place, for vessels reported
having sailed for 40, 50, and 60 miles through floating fish ; and, in one
case, the schooner Navarino sailed for about 150 miles through waters
dotted as far as the eye could reach with dying fishes. Computations
made by Captain J. W. Collins seem to indicate that an area of from
5000 to 7500 square statute miles A linear distance of 1,760 yards. was so thickly covered with dead or
dying fish that their numbers must have exceeded the enormous number
of one billion. Since there were no signs of any disease, and no parasites
found on the fish brought in for examination, their death could not have
been brought about by either of these causes; and many conjectures
were made as to the reason of this wholesale destruction of deep-water
fishes, such as would ordinarily be unaffected by conditions prevailing
at the surface, submarine volcanoes, heat, cold, and poisonous gases being
* ‘ Report of the Commissioner for 1884,’ p. 32.
t This account is taken from Goode and Bean, ‘ Oceanic Ichthyology ’ (Mem. Mus.
Comp. Zool, vol. xxii. pp. 287, 288).
No. II. —August, 1898.] K