The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 12, 1899, Page 23

ROFESSOR JORDAN of Stan- ford - University - is .the greatest fisherman in the country. If yog have any doubts of this go down to his storeroom at the university and take a look at his catch. If - you think. you know thing about catching fish you are sure to be filled with envy. ‘When Professor Jordan goes fishing es not me home. with a few but he brings thousands of fish and of many variettes. -Some of his last catch are of species never before n by naturalists. These are the kind Professor -Jordan likes, and. when once he g hold of such a specimen 1d t buy -it. Professor Jordan has just returned from a trip through little .known por- of Mexico: - He has dipped his into pools never’ before stirred up by a naturalist. He has.found rare some hitherto unknown to ‘sci-. £ this fishing trip can be There are jars, bot- boxes and barrels-all led vecimens 'of - the’ finny tribe. f the.fish are not an Inch in ; others are several .feet.. Some. m look ‘very familidr, but others to have had trouble with them- as if unable to make' up their s :just what they wanted to look These are the valuable and un- wn kind .on which so much store is e on his fishing trip to Me sor Jordan wa i 1yder, wh at the collection, 1€ 1t in such shape e to the university as it now stands'is the t owned by any unt- ed States, and very 2 ‘world xpedition to Mexico was important one in sev- collection eral respects. Not only because the ality. visitéd ‘was: never before exam- d by naturalists, but becausé the ty -has the queerest combinations of conditions in the wh world.. Here tha tropic. and - the temperate zones et and mingle. . The waters run to north and to the south, and it would seem as.if thé species of the uttermost 1ds of the earth, north and south, met Teason -that such a large queer . looking® fish were x of caught taken entirely.from fresh ‘water, sev- {stics' of deep seafish. dition has been a most suc- sald - Professor Snyder, the -fact that our Had we been able to cessful ‘one, ‘notwithstanding fod I am sure we would ecimens -that would Although the specimens were § of them have almost the charac- § 4 'in certain localities for tained any specimens of value in this way. “Our usual method of work, which ‘we followed in every instance, wasito find some stream or pool that was not fished in by the natives to any extent. To do this we often had to travel through unknown forests for miles. “When we came to the place that looked promising we simply put on our rubber boots, or rolled up our trousers, and waded in. Then we kept a sharp lookout for any specimens of the finny tribe that were moving about. And when once we caught sight of one he was doomed, for we pursued him with our nets until we landed him. “Usually we found the pools at the bottom of waterfalls the most produc- tive of rare specimens. In such pools the fish from below ran into a bar- rier and those from above spent their time in the hopes of getting back up the falls. Some of the places where we fished were ideal spots. The climate was per- fect and the surrounding foliage beau- tiful beyond description. Moss cov- ered rocks, ma nificent trees and frag- rant flowers were on all sides. The water was always clean and bright and bbled with a most refreshing sound. f the new specimens we caught I have no knowledge. ~There are cer- tainly new species, and I feel quite sure that some will prove to be a new ge- nus. But of course I cannot tell this until after study and investigation. “Certainly some of the specimens are queer. Here is one white little fellow. See, he is about the size of your hand on the sid~ but not over a quarter of an inch thick. His eyeballs seem to touch. - In fact, it has the appear- e of being only one eyeball, but I not sure of this and will not cut him -until T have made all the other estigations. Here is one that has tafl of a mackerel and a head of ind T have never seen before. Here ts a perch that has a palr of fins like a moon fish. And here is a strange fel- low, with an ordinary looking tail and also a long straight tail attached just erneath. I think this is a new ge- an h £ surprise .the world. But as tt-is, we ¢ are amply: repaid and have gathered . enough material for several years of very few exceptions, Profes- in and myself caught all. of imens. At first we engaged come with us and fish where lirected. them to. not.do: the work properly.. They n idea that we wanted the fish to so would only fish for the Kinds ¢ knew to be plentiful. - That ed to keep the: fish for speel- ns to be studied and examined was yre -than they could comprehend. when they saw us.throw whole 118 back Into the water they were ¥ mfounded, and formed a very poor opinion of uS. “After demonstrating -to that the natives were fallures as fisher- men ‘we turned in and did‘all the work ourselv: while they -stood by. and watched us in-open-eyed.wonder. When they .saw, us. bring up fish of ‘a kind that they had never. géen before they concluded that we must be magiclans. “We used the net in nearly all of our work. When we came to a very deep pool In the depths of some tropl- cal forest we were compelled to use the hook and line. ~But we seldom ob- But the natives : ourselves THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1899. SOME OF THE STRANGE FISH CAUGHT IN MEXICO BY PROFESSOR JORDAN FOR STANFORD UNIVERSITY. “We caught a new kind of catfish that I think will prove valuable to pro- pagate here for a food fish. It is of good size and its shape indicates plenty of fine flesh. It is more lively than our catfish and should be a valuable addition to the food fish of any State. “But, really, I do not yet know just what we have got in our collection. We caught several fish that we were not familiar with; put them into bot- ties and have not yet come across them again. It may be that some will turn out to be of & new species. But I do know that our expedition has been a successful one and will be of the great- est benefit to t'he u'nlversltyf' . Just what sclence will gain as a re- sult of the recent collecting tour made through Mexico' by Dr. Jordan and Instructor J. O. Snyder of the zoology department, has not yet been fully as- certained. At the present stag® in the study of the big collection of fishes, stored away for preservation in jars and barrels of all descriptions, the de- partment is able to announce with more or less accuracy the discovery of eight species hitherto unknown to science. Before the species can” be classified. several months must be spent in care- ful investigation.- In the meantime other new fish may be found in the 1000 epecimens obtained from Mexican wat- ers. - Besldes tife ©valuable -additions made to scientific knoyledge, the new specimens are of particular worth to the Stanford museum of fishes. as they practically complete a collection of fishes taken along the estern coast from Alaska to the extremity of South America. Furthermore, the recent trip is another great step in the field of eystematic zoology. As soon as the geographical distribution of fishes is accurately determined, then scientists can intelligently ask themselves the question, How and when did these fish get where they are found? Mexico is a veritable paradise for the ichthyologist, as its rivers contain the fauna of South and North Ameri- can varieties. It is the meeting place for species of the frigid and torrid zones. The zoologist can leave the snow-capped mountains and in a dav’s travel find himself in valleys where southern varjeties of life exist. Entic- ing as this fleld is to the naturalist. it has been studied By no means care- fully. On their recent trip, for example, important rivers of Mexico, never be- \ PRESIDENT JORDAN FISHING AMONG THE POOLS IN. MEXICO, fore visited by any icythyologist, were fished with flattering results. In fact, a number of the rarest specimens were caught in the parts of Mexico new to the collector. Beforg beginning their work Dr. Jor- dan and Mr. Snyder carefully surveyed the ground. The first place fished at was Guadalajara, which was reached on the 22d of December. At this place they were told that the fish could be more easily caught in Lake de Chapala, where they cast their nets. In dealing with the fishermen con- siderable diplomacy had to be used. Inquiries concerning the fish would at once arouse their suspicions. Thinking the naturalists were considering enter- ing competition with them for the sup- ply of the fish markets, they would in- variably try to deceive them. To find out exactly where the fish came from Mr. Snyder found it necessary to watch the men as they came in before day- light with their catch. At the City of Mexico, San Francisco fish were found in competition with the product of the Mexican waters. The California varieties had been expressed on ice, yet sold for the same price as the native fish. The waters swarmed with fish, but the Mexican fishermen were not enterprising /or energetic enough to force the California fish out of the market. 5 Near the City of Mexico a great many salamanders were collected. These lizard-like reptiles are eaten by the natives. Their use as food is said to date back to the time when Cortez was reduced to the extremity of feeding his immense army on them. After fishing Lake Thalco, the beau- tiful Ixtla River, near the anclent town, Puente de Ixtla, was carefully seined for specimens, as it was one of the streams that had never before been visited by a naturalist. Their efforts were rewarded in findine the first of the new species. A queer catfish, not only specifically but generically new, was caught. Their efforts were fur- ther rewarded by discovering a small red bellied minnow, remarkable because of its new specles, and the fact that it was taken at a point farther south than any minnow has been known to o. ¥ At this place the natives had never seen such a thing as a draw net and had to be ipstructed in its use. Much of the manual labor had to be per- formed by the naturalists. It is safe to say that the next time Mexico is visited by Stanford icthyologists, Amer- ican boys familiar with the use of draw nets will make 'up a part of the expe- dition. Another species unknown to science was taken near Aguas Caliente, where the naturalists went after collecting a number of reptiles at Cuernavaca. As one great object of the trip was to examine the fishes of the eastern coast, which have been studied in any- thing but a systematic way, Dr. Jordan and Mr. Snyder lost no time in getting to Tampico, which was reached on the 10th of January. By flshing the mouth of the Rio Paunco River and the la- goons near by two of the new species were obtained. One is of the sunfish variety, and the other resembles a sucker. After a trip down the coast to Vera Cruz, where fever was found to be rag- ing, Dr. Jordan started for home with his party of sightseers, consisting of Mrs. Jordan, Professor Dudley, J. E. McDowell, T. A. Storey, G. M. Bow- man, Miss Bowman, of the university; Mrs. 8. F. Lieb and daughter Elna of San Jose, Mr. and Mrs. Butler of San Mateo, W. T. Reid, head master of Bel- mont School, and E. C. Ely of St. Mat- thews’ School. Mr. Snyder remained in Mexico for a couple of weeks’ addi- tional collecting. It was near Rascon, below the beau- tiful fdlls of the Rio Verde River, that the peculiar long tailed fish was seined. The funds necessary to carry out this valuable work were furnished by Mr. Timothy Hopkins of Menlo Park, who has been the life of the zoology depart- ment since the foundation of the uni- versity. With his aid, Dr. Jordan has been able to make Stanford the lead- ing university of the country in the im- portant work of classifying the fish of America. Scores of young ichthyolog- ists have been equipped with syste- matic methods for the study of fishes. Many of the graduates of the zoology department have Government positions and are assisting in the work of class- ification undertaken by the Govern- ment. PROFESSOR ANTHONY, Naturalist and Navigator ROFESSOR ANTHONY does not look a bit like a sclentific man. When I rowed off to the little schooner lying out on the Mission Flats I expected to meet a vener- able gray-haired scientist, a man of vast learning and world-wide experience, who had roamed. all his life in foreign lands in search of his beloved specimens. I had in my mind's eye Kipling’'s famous Ger- man orchid collector, a man full of racy anecdote and welrd recollection, who could tell, in strange guttural dialect, such hair- raising stories as rtram and Bibi,” or “The German Fla Unfortunately, Kipling’s type of natur- alist is not to be met with nowadays, at least not on board the Stella Erland. In- stead of my venerable scientist, I found a young, roughly dressed man, seated on the heel of the main topmast, which had been sent down on deck for repairs. “Mind the oil,” he said, as I stepped over the low bulwark, and I saw the spar had been freshly coated and was still sticky. ‘Yes, I am Professor Anthony; come below.”” It is but a step from the main deck to the stern of the little craft, and then we dived through the companionway into a tiny, dingy, untidy cabin. There is nothing romantic about the Stella Erland. Professor Anthony’'s devotion to science leaves him neither time nor means to waste upon useless ornamentation. The schooner is a strong, handy little craft, well fitted for her task, but she is not exactly pretty. For four years, ever since she was built near Seattle, she has en trading up on Cook Inlet, rough and dangerous voyaging, calling for light rig and strone canvas. The professor is young, only 33, and delicate looking, with the Iight of enthu- siasm in his eyes. He has only one aim and object in life—to add to his ornitho- logical collection. To secure a rare speci- men, a bird hitherto unknown and un- classified, he is prepared to risk any dan- ger, to brave any discomfort. And cer- tainly, looking around the cabin of tne schooner, one wonders how eight or ten men are golng to exist here In the trop- ics. Both sides of the place are lined with a double tier of wide bunks, making eight sleeping places in all. In the cen- ter there is a rude oflcloth-covered table, two or three rickety campstools are scat- tered about, and this completes the cata- logue of furniture. “Up in the Arctic they used to put two men in each of those bunks,” remarked the professor, “but I guess, where we are going, we will find one enough. 1 bought this schooner to replace the J. C. Wahl- berg, my former vessel, which was lost about 300 miles below San Diego. I was not on board of her when she was wrecked, but all the same it was my own fault. I lent her to another man while I went north o attend to some business of my own, of course he sailed her ashore. ad been two years cruising off the Mexican coast, collecting on the Revillagigedo Islands, and had never met with an accident before. They are most interesting islands for a collector to visit, 31 got several new species of parrots and oves.” The professor denies indignantly that he makes any money out of his ornitholog- fcal work. “I know,” he replied, “that it is popularly supposed I send rare speci- mens to the Smithsonian and other pub- lic institutes and get big prices for them. But there is no truth in that. When I get anything good I keep it for my own col- lection.” “‘An seen? “Nowhere just now. It is packed fn boxes and scattered at different places along the coast. There are some things at San Diego, some here in San Fran- cisco and some farther north, just where they may happen to have been landed. When I am at home I live in San Diego, but now this little schooner is my only - where s your collection to be home. “Then how do you make the thing pay?"” I asked, rather puzzled as to how this ex- traordinary natural history expedition was to be financed. “It does not pay; it is just my hobby, that is all. You see, I am under very small expense running this schooner. Our only outlay is for provisions and what Iittle stores and repairs the vessel needs. There will be eight or perhaps ten of us this trip, and every.man is an enthuslas- tic naturalist like myself. They know all the sailorizing which is necessary in a craft of this kind; they can reef and splice and take their trick at the wheel. So that - you see we are our own crew and have no Wwages to pay. Living does not cost much, either, for we get game and fish as we-go along; turtles are to be picked up almost anywhere down the coast, and fruit is Plea{lful. *“We manage everything on a communal basts. We all live aft in the cabin hers, Fs you see, and except that I am the nav- ator and responsible for the safety of the ship, we are all absolutely equal. And we do not clash either in our investiga- tions, for each man has his own peculiar * hobby to follow, and collects on Rlu own Jines. . One may be an entomologist, an- . other a botanist and so on, untfl we have - pretty well every branch of natural sci- ence represented on board.” It is a strange idea, this cargo of ama- teur, ' impoverished naturalists erufsin, around the sweltering shores of Central America, and adding, out of sheer disin- - terested enthusiasm, to the world's knowl- edge of nature’'s marvels. Professor An- thony himself is by profession a mining engineer, but he has abandoned this lucra- ;l\i'e occupation to labor in the cause of cience. —_—— Mrs. Willlam Astor has a_coll . diamonds worth a fortune. But t’fi‘%’r’neg{ diamond in the world belongs, it is said, to Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt. y affair, weighing one carat, yet it cost her husband £1000.° As the value of the dia:. * mond increases in an increasin with its weight, up to a modem%s r:l:’eo this Vanderbilt brilliant, if as large as the Koh-i-Noor (102% carats) would be worth about £760.000. Mrs. Vanderbilt's elous gem came fro; or Golconda. B Eumbuipac 333888888388888383838388588383Sifisi8@58828288&838888883983883859883838838989888282&98283898?8882888?8988“ When Does the Twentieth Century Begin? ASHINGTON, Feb. 7.—When does the twentieth century begin? It is all very well to an- swer confidently “at the be- ginning of the year 1900” and consider the matter settled. It isn't settled by a long way, and the new century doesn’t begin at the beginning, but at the end of the coming year, according to learned men who are sticklers for accuracy. As the end of the century approaches the question is likely to assume greater proportions and the controversy to wax hotter. The best thing to do, therefore, is to quote the opinion of one of those wise philosophers whose lives are occupied in keeping tabs on the time and tide that proverbially walt for no man. Here is the opinion of a prominent as- tronomer verbatim The next century will begin on Janu- ary 1, 1901—the last year of the present century being 1800. The present era begins with the year A. D. 1, and the year before being B. C. 1, there being no year 0. This is inconvenient for chronology, but it is the accepted mode of reckoning. If historians had been content to start the era with the year “naught,” as astronomers start the hour of the day with the cipher 0, all would have been well and we should not have to face the inevitable paradox of talking about the closing year of the nineteenth century when we shall be already dat- ing our letters 1900. Scientists and those who have to mark the lapse of seconds, say in regulating the prolonged exposure of a ghomgraphfic plate or the printing of a bromide paper, accustom themselves, to count “naught, one, two,” and so on; but the popular method of counting is to begin straightaway ‘“one, two, three,” by which the first second is apt to be much curtailed. A similar error took place in begin- ning the Christian era, the year 0 hav- ing been dropped for the convenience of chronologists, The present year has, morally, no more right to be called 1399 before December 31 next than an infant of one month has to be called a year old before it has completed its twelfth month. Accurately speaking the Chris- tian era is in its 1898th year, which ob- viously is not the same thing as the completed 1899 vears of the era and cannot be confoundef with the 1900th. Another way of demonstrating the truth of the statement that the new ‘ century begins at the end of the year 1900 is to take the face of a twenty- four-hour clock. A clock of this kind records the flight of seconds in one circle and that of every hour of the day and night in a third. It is, there- fore, a twenty-four-hour clock, but you may look in vain for the numeral 24 or XXIV. All three concentric circles be- gin with 0. Thus the outer one, allotted to the minutes, is marked 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 65. The inner one begins with 0 and proceeds I, II, III and so on to XXIII; and the innermost circle, marking the seconds, journeys from 0 to 10, 20 and so on to 60. It is a little bewildering to find that 0 stands for XII and XII i{s where VI is usu- ally placed, upside down, while the sec- ond hand points to 0 when that of the ordinary timepiece records 60. There will probably be a great deal of argument about this, although the question was settled a hundred years ago beyond dispute, but it must be agreed that the foregoing plainly and clearly shows that the twentieth cen- tury will not begin next New Year's day, but when the vear 1900 is ended. WATERPHONES FOR Careless Customers. EMPHIS, Tenn., Feb. 7.—'‘Cheap as water” may seem a good simile to those who watch the cataract of Niagara, but the water com- panies by whom the household necessity is supplied do not consider their commodity so cheap as to justify the consumer in wasting it. In this city, as in most others, the water that the companies declare is wasted amounts to millions of gallons a year. But how to stop the waste was a problem that it seemed no one would solve. They have solved it at last, however, and now the housewife who leaves the water running down the kitchen sink when the family retires for the night is to be brought up with a round turn, if she will pardon the expres- sion. The weapon of the water companies in this war on the wasteful housewife is a little instrument called the waterphone.- The waterphone is nothing more nor less than a telephone receiver with the inside magnets taken out. By placing the stop- cock key on the cock at the sidewalk and turning the cock half off and then touch- ing the key with the recelver the slightest leak can be detected. 3 Every night at 11 p. m. scouts sent out * by the water companies prowl about the - sleéping city, armed with waterphones. ‘When water is found running upon any premises the exact hour is noted in a book for that purpose, and the inspectors pass on, leaving the water as they found it, assuming that it is being legitimately used. About 3 o’'clock they again visit those places where water was found run- ning early in the night. If it is still run- ning, of course that means either care- lessness or the fixtures out of order, and if it be the second time water is found wasting it is turned off. If it be the first time, the householder gets off with a lecture. The same inspector who does this night work calls again the next morning, be- tween 7 and 9 o'clock, and gives notice of wastage or informs the tenant why the ‘water is cut off, as the case may be. By pushing these inspections, the water companies have reduced the consumption several million gallons per day. In the notice sent out by the company it is stated that “five million gallons would easily meet the legitimate needs of Memphis, and yet we are pumping from. ten to twelve millions daily. We have repeatedly appealed to consumers against this wholesale waste, and we must protect ourselves if possible, and to that end will continue these waterphone night in- spections. Notice is hereby given that if water is found running again it will be discontinued and money. refunded. We cannot be expected to supply those who - so grossly abuse their privilege and cause us such needless loss.” i As the penalty is a much dreaded one, the influence of the little waterphone .i8 being felt all over the city, and a stop is' - being put to wastefulness. ¢ —_————— Here is a story told by Rudyard Kip- ling. His father, John Kipling, went to pay a visit to an Indian Rajah who was about to bring home a queen. The elder Kiplihg had been engaged in the decora- tions of the palace, 2nd its owner showed him the gifts of stuffs and perfumes he had' procured for his coming spouse. The Rajah also sent for his jewel caskets, and asked Mr. Kipling to asist him in se-. lecting the gems to be included in the marriage gifts. They were of extraordi-- nary size and value, such gems as are seldom seen except in the East, and to the artist the selection was a pleasure. " Finally he lifted a wonderful diamond, one of the choicest gems in the collec tion, and said: ‘‘You should send. this. - No woman could resist it.”” The Rajah looked up, caught it and held it {el.lolul to his breast. Then slowly replacing it in the casket, he answered: “Nay, such gems are not for women.”—The Bookman. t is a tiny.- -