As to the methods of procuring your fish, I have very little to say. In all my collecting I have never yet seen the time when it did not pay far better to buy fish specimens of professional fishermen than to turn fisherman myself. With an enterprising set of fishermen, much may be done by offering to purchase the strange and curious species that are often unfit for food, and are usually thrown away. Be first in the fish-market when the day's catch is being landed; be on hand persistently, in season and out of season, and by so doing you will have the first chance to buy the handsome sharks, rays, rhinobati, etc., before they are ruthlessly cut up and sold piecemeal. Mask your enthusiasm; learn to dissemble, and then you will not need to pay more than the ruling market prices, even for the specimens which are of the highest scientific value. In Ceylon I once bought a remarkable shark-ray for three shillings, which I sold again, almost immediately, for $75; but it almost cost me a fit of apoplexy to control my feelings while the bargain was being made. I wanted to give three cheers for Rhamphobatis ancylostomus!

Field Notes on Fishes.—Colors.—In collecting and preserving fishes, happy is he who can sketch with a pencil, and thrice happy is he to whom the gods have given the ability to paint in water-colors. If you are blessed with this ability, the correct and imperative thing to do in collecting is to make a good outline sketch of each species, and color it carefully from a perfectly fresh specimen. Then, when the glorious colors of the living fish vanish like magic in the alcohol, or in the air, as the case may be, there is your permanent and indisputable record, a thing of great value to science until a better one is produced. At the National Museum it has for years been the policy of Dr. Goode to have an accurate water-color drawing made by Mr. Schindler of every species of fish, cetacean, and reptile received. The result is a series of exhibition casts in which every detail of color is reproduced with admirable accuracy and life likeness. In preserving your fresh specimens remember that, no matter what you may do, the colors will fade, and the more delicate tints will disappear entirely.

Labels.—For alcoholics the best thing to use is a small bit of pure sheet tin, or else sheet lead, with a number stamped upon it. The next best thing is a parchment tag having the necessary data written upon it with a lead pencil, which is much more permanent in alcohol than any ink.

Scientific Facts.—Of the many facts the novice should try to ascertain regarding each species, the following are the most important: All the local names; degree of abundance; time when most abundant; whether it is a permanent resident or is migratory; if migratory, the facts relating thereto; its habits; the depth and character of bottom preferred; food; what fishes prey upon them; value as food or for other purposes.

Methods of Preservation.—In the field, fishes may be collected and preserved in four different ways, according to circumstances, as follows: 1. Preserved entire in spirits. 2. As skins, preserved in spirits. 3. As skins preserved in brine. 4. As rough skeletons, either preserved dry or in spirits.

For the purposes of scientific study and close investigation, the most valuable fish specimens are those which have been preserved entire in alcohol, or some equally efficient preservative solution. Good alcoholic specimens rank next in scientific value to fishes fresh from their native element. Ordinarily, however, the collector's resources are limited, and it is necessary for him to preserve only the skins of the large and bulky specimens.

Tanks for Alcoholics.—For years past the National Museum and United States Fish Commission have used square, box-like tanks, made of copper and lined with tin, each tank having a large round hole in its top, as large as the width of the top will allow, and which is closed tightly by means of a screw cover. These are known as "Agassiz tanks," for the reason that the design originated with Professor Louis Agassiz. They are light, not very costly, easily managed, and are about as nearly perfect for their purpose as anything can be in this world. They are made of three sizes, to hold four, eight, or sixteen gallons. To protect them during shipment a strong pine chest is used, which is provided with wrought-iron handles, hinged cover, hasp, and padlock. The chests are made to contain one sixteen-gallon tank, two of eight gallons, and either three or four four-gallon tanks. The tanks used by the National Museum are made by W.S. Barker, Seventh and D Streets, S.W., Washington, at the following prices, exclusive of the chests; sixteen-gallon tank, $16.50; eight-gallon, $10; four-gallon, $4.25; pine chests, complete, $3 each.

If Agassiz tanks are not obtainable, the next best and the cheapest course is to have some large round cans made of galvanized iron, with tops that can be soldered on when the time comes to ship specimens. Wooden kegs are not of much use in collecting, but both kegs and barrels are good enough to use in transporting collections. Many a time I have helped myself out of a difficulty afield by falling back upon the immortal American kerosene can, holding five square gallons, and which goes to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Glass Jars.—In the field I have never found any other sort of a glass jar half as useful and safe as a common Mason fruit jar, varying in size from pint to half-gallon. They are infinitely superior to glass-stoppered jars, and far less liable to be broken.

Preserving Fishes Entire in Spirits.—Having taken all the notes on a fresh specimen that you desire, the next thing is to wash it thoroughly. But "before washing the fish," says Dr. T. H. Bean, "look it over for external parasites; examine the gills and the inside of the mouth carefully, as these are favorite situations. These parasites often furnish a clue to the migration of the fish; remove them if they can be taken off entire; if not, let them remain, and call attention to their presence in your shipping notes. Preserve the parasites in vials or bottles, and provide them with labels, stating from what fish they came, and in what situation they were found."

Many fishes when taken from the water have the entire body and gills covered with a coat of persistent mucus that can be removed only by determined effort. If you have any alum at hand, you can in a moment make up a pint or quart of alum water, which will cut the mucus instantly, and clear it off. Use a stiff brush—a large tooth-brush is the best thing—in cleaning off this mucus, and do not forget to cleanse the gills thoroughly.

Open the abdominal region of every fish by making a generous cut from the vent straight forward toward the ventral fins. Usually the length of the opening should be equal to about one-fifth of the entire length of the fish. If the fish be a large one, it has always been my practice to open the fleshy interior still farther by working through this cut, and detaching the skin from the flesh as far up each side as possible. This gives the spirits immediate access to the entire mass of flesh, and the result is very speedy and perfect preservation without any change whatever in the form or weight of the specimen.

Dr. Bean always directs that the viscera be preserved, to assist in identification, even though it becomes necessary to remove them from large fishes and preserve them in separate jars. When there is no particular reason for their preservation, it is a great advantage to remove them and throw them away. They are—unless of scientific value—an abominable nuisance, and do more to spoil good alcohol than all the rest of the fish.

Fishes that have begun to decompose, and have become offensive, yet are too valuable to throw away, may be disinfected by washing them inside and out with a moderately weak solution of pure carbolic acid and water, or with a solution made by dissolving a tablespoonful of chloride of soda in a pint of water.

For years a very common formula for preservative alcohol has been ninety-five per cent alcohol diluted with one-third of its bulk of water, or, in other words, three parts of alcohol and one of water. If there is any fault to be found with this solution, it is that it is stronger than is really necessary. I have preserved barrels of alcoholic specimens in a solution composed of two parts of proof spirits and one part water, and have never lost a specimen except through leakage. This solution is strong enough to stand considerable deterioration without the loss of its contents.

I have never attempted to collect quantities of alcoholics without an alcoholometer in constant use. This little instrument costs but a trifle, and affords the only reliable means for testing the strength of alcohol. Its use enables the collector to exercise economy in the use of his spirits, and get the maximum benefit from it. Therefore I say, buy an alcoholometer at all hazards, and carry it and a suitable test-glass with your outfit. Test the spirits on your specimens frequently, and you will then run no risks of loss.

Keep a receptacle to use as a receiving and curing tank, into which all fresh specimens are placed, with abundant room for each to undergo the curing process. Every animal contains in its body a heavy percentage of water, which must be, in great measure, replaced by the spirits before the flesh can be preserved from decay. Into the first bath a great quantity of blood and abdominal fluids will be soaked out from the specimen, and it is bound to lose strength rapidly, and also become foul. As long as it remains clean enough to use, keep up its strength by the addition of pure spirits, and in it immerse all specimens until they are thoroughly cured. Give them plenty of room at first, and keep them from settling down to the bottom by putting there a bunch of excelsior, tow, or cloth. While the spirits in a can may be strong enough on top to preserve a specimen, at the bottom, where the animal impurities settle, it may be so weak that anything lying in it would soon spoil. Often the tail of a fish which hangs upright in a jar will spoil while the remainder will be preserved.

After specimens have remained in the receiving-tank for from two to four days, according to size, put them in another receptacle in clean, fresh spirits, still allowing them plenty of room. Finally, when ready to pack up and make a shipment home, wrap each fish separately in a piece of thin, white cotton cloth, just large enough to cover it well, dip it in clean spirits, and without any tying or pinning of the cloths, lay the fishes in your barrel like sardines in a box, as closely as they will lie without being squeezed. Fill the receptacle full of fishes, head it up, and then pour into it all the clean spirits it will hold.

In order to proceed with the second and third methods of preserving fish specimens, it now becomes necessary to describe a process.

How to Skin a Fish.—Of course, no one aspiring to become a collector of fishes will remain in ignorance of the names of the different fins. And, more than that, before he can prepare even the rough skeleton of a fish he must know what its bony structure is like. On the whole, there is a good deal to be learned about methods in collecting fishes, and as a beginning we must learn how to skin a scale fish. The methods with cartilaginous fishes will be considered later.

The principles with all scale fishes are precisely the same, the only difference being in the greater amount of cold steel and energy required for such great, hulking brutes as the jewfish, and the magnificent tarpon. For convenience we will take a specimen about a foot in length; for example, a striped bass, a pike, or a red snapper.

As is the case with quadrupeds, the left side of a mounted fish is always expected to be "the show side." Lay the specimen upon its left side, start at the vent with a stout pair of sharp-pointed scissors, and divide the skin in a perfectly straight line along the median line of the belly toward the head, stopping the cut when you approach close to the narrow, tongue-like point which terminates between the lower angles of the gill openings. Now reverse the fish, begin again at the vent, and divide the skin with a clean cut through the scales, in a line parallel with the base of the anal fin, and about half an inch from where the scales meet the fin rays. This is really a cut along the side of the fish, as low down as possible, made necessary by reason of the anal fin. Continue this cut straight back to the tail, as shown in the dotted line g-h in Plate IV.

You will find that the ventral fins are joined together in the flesh by a strong bony arch, called the pubis, and this must be divided through the middle so as to entirely separate the fins. The anal fin-rays must now be cut loose from the interior rays (called interhÆmal spines), which are really their bony foundation. The ventral fins must also be cut loose from the pubic bones at the point where they are articulated. Now take the cut edge of the fish skin between the left thumb and forefinger, and with the cartilage-knife carefully cut the skin free from the flesh. Be careful not to disturb the white layer of color pigment which is spread like a silver lining of feeble tin-foil over the inside of the skin. This is what gives the fish its silvery color, and if skinned off or scraped away the skin will look like colorless parchment. Whatever you do, do not disturb that color lining. Proceed with the skinning until the skin has been detached from the entire upper side of the fish. This brings you to where the dorsal and caudal fins are inserted.[6]

Now turn the fish over, and proceed as before, as far as you can go. You presently reach the caudal fin, which must be cut loose from the end of the vertebral column as far back in the skin as possible. When this has been done, the skin and the fleshy body still hang together by the attachment of the rays of the dorsal fin to the interhÆmal spines. Cut these apart with the scissors, from back to front, close up to the skin, which brings you to where the vertebral column joins the skull. You will make very short work of that, which frees the fleshy body from the skull. Now scrape away the surplus flesh from the inside of the skin, wash it thoroughly, remove the gills (if they are not to be studied), and lay the skin flat upon its side in your tank of alcohol.

By thus preserving the skins of fishes, instead of whole specimens, a great number of really large specimens can be preserved in a small quantity of alcohol, for at the last they can be packed together, heads and tails, precisely like sardines.

Skinning Cartilaginous Fishes.—Sharks, Rays, etc.—The skinning of a shark or saw-fish calls for no special instructions in addition to the foregoing, except that the long, narrow, pointed tail requires to be slit open along the right side of its upper lobe for a considerable distance. Remember the principle that wherever there is flesh, a way must be made so that it can be removed, or at least reached from the inside by the preservative. Of the skull, nothing is to be left attached to the skin

except the jaws. The skeleton is wholly of cartilage instead of bone, and is easily cut through.

The extremely flat, circular-bodied ray, also with a cartilaginous skeleton, must be opened on the underside by two cross cuts at right angles to each other, one extending from mouth to tail, and the other from side to side. The fin rays are very long stems of cartilage, set so closely together as to form a solid sheet of cartilage extending from the thoracic skeleton out to the extremities of the fins, which taper out to nothing. The thoracic skeleton gives shape to the body of the ray, particularly the back, and it must be left in place, with the skin of the back attached to it. Cut through the fin rays where they join the body, and this will enable you to skin down each side of the fish until you get so near the outer edge there is no longer any flesh. Stop at that point, cut the flesh away from the fin rays, and cut away as much of the fin rays themselves as you please.

Clear out all the flesh and preserve the skin in a very strong solution of salt and water (what is known to chemists as a "saturated solution"), or in alcohol if you have it to spare.

Preparing Rough Skeletons.—In about seven cases out of ten, it is a far easier and more simple matter to rough out, clean, and mount the complete skeleton of a fish than the uninitiated would naturally suppose. A few fishes, such as the shad, have more bones than the law allows, and the preparation of a complete skeleton thus becomes a practical impossibility. Fortunately, however, most fishes are more reasonable in the matter of bones, and to these we direct our efforts.

First and foremost, study the bony structure of a typical scale fish, learn what its principal parts are, and how they are articulated. Learn how the ribs lie, and how a row of slender, riblike bones called appendices, or epipleural spines, are attached to the true ribs, and at their outer extremities touch the inside of the skin along the lateral line of the fish. If you will take a good-sized perch as your first subject, you will not be troubled with any osteological extras, and the process will be as follows:

Lay the perch upon its side, and with a sharp scalpel cut away the skin from the whole of the exposed side. Remove all the viscera. By careful examination, ascertain the exact location of the ribs, and particularly the row of epipleural spines attached at the upper ends of the former. With a broad, flat bone-scraper, or your knife-blade if you have nothing better, begin at the lateral line of the fish, and work toward the top of the back, taking the flesh away in chunks as you go. In a very short time the vertebrÆ and the interhÆmal spines are exposed, and with a narrower bone-scraper the flesh is easily removed from them.

Now turn the fish around, and with great care cut and scrape the flesh away from the ribs and the epipleural spines. Do not on any account detach the latter from the former, but at this stage leave them attached to each other by a thin strip of flesh for their better protection.

Do not separate the ventral fins by cutting through the pubic arch, but with your small, curve-ended bone-scraper remove the flesh from the angular recesses of these bones, and leave the anterior end of the pubic arch attached to the coracoid. Next, pick out the flesh from around the base of the pectoral fin, remove the eye from its socket, and whatever flesh the skull contains. Thus does the bony structure of one entire side stand revealed. The gills are of course to remain in place, as the skeleton would not be complete without them.

There is but one thing more to add. In treating the other side of the fish in a precisely similar manner, care must be taken to not disturb the attachment of the interneural and interhÆmal spines which join the dorsal and anal fin rays to the processes of the vertebral column.

Having thus denuded the fish of its flesh, lay the skeleton in a pan of water, and with a moderately soft tooth-brush, or nailbrush, brush it carefully to wash away all blood and mucus. If the bones are full of blood (which is very rarely the case), the skeleton must be soaked in clear water for an hour or two, or longer if necessary, to soak out the blood, so that it will not dry in the bones and permanently disfigure them.

Rough skeletons of fishes may be preserved in alcohol, but for many reasons it is much the best to dry them. Poison them with dry arsenic; do not put upon them either salt, arsenical soap, or alum, hang each one up by the head, and see that it dries in good shape. The pectoral fins should lie well down upon the ribs for mutual protection.