SMALLEST FISH IN THE WORLD.
Probably the smallest fish in the world are to be found in the mountain lake Buhl in the island of Luzon, Phillipines. This fish, which the natives call the smarapan, is the most minute vertebrate animal known to science. It wc ghs“only half a grain, and half an inch is its maximum length. The natives catch it with a net of exceedingly fine mesh-—hardly more than a coarse cloth, which is used as a sieve. In this manner great quantities of the tiny fishes are captured, and being dried in a mass in the sun without any other cooking are seasoned with pepper and other spices and pressed into flat round cakes,
Inasmuch as a single cake contains from 2,000 to 3,000 fishes, the smallness of the latter will be realised. It would be a native with a meagre appetite who could not dispose of 10,000 of the finny creatures at a meal.
There is a suspicion that the fish in question is practically extinct for several months in every year, like certain annual plants. Meanwhile the eggs, which are so small that-1,200 of them placed in line are required to measure one inch, are incubating for the production of the next generation.
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Greymouth Evening Star, 28 January 1903, Page 4
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208SMALLEST FISH IN THE WORLD. Greymouth Evening Star, 28 January 1903, Page 4
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