The Speed of Fish.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7961, 26 October 1905, Page 2

The Speed of Fish.

KKiIITY MILKS AN IIOUH, SlUily of the speed of fishes is embarrassed by unavoidable/lUlfltulitic*It 'is not possible, as with birds, t* hut up t.'.U l'olis a I Intervals of a(|iiarl,c ol a mile, and, with the lielp of stopwatches, time the.iu as they do |>y. Ncvurt'h'elcss, rlecent investigation ot 'he subject goes to show that the' mackerel, if not the champion racer of the briny deep, comes pretty near to carrying oil lb' honours- I UnqfKS'eionaWy, it travels s'omcl'imes as fast ,as an express train at high speed—say, at the rate of sicty, or possibly seventy, miles an hour.

Other things being equal, the larger the fish, the taster it swimsjust as the huge steamship is able to travel at a speed much greater titan the little harbour tug. U*doubtedly, the energy employed by a lisli of great size, such as a 30ft shark, when travelling at its best gait, is sometimes tremendous. An ordinary tug, which presents a maximum of energy in a minimum of bulk, utilises about two hundred horse-power. Of course, it is only a guess, but it would not seem to be over the mark to suppose that a 70ft whale makes use of 500 horsepower when it propels its huge bulk through the water at a rate of 30 miles an hour. A whale—'which it a mammal, ami not a fish, might be compared to a freight train if the shark is a eannonball express, but it can beat the fastest "ocean greyhound" in a contest.

If there is a fish that can travel . faster than a shark it must be the tarpon, whicli can probably "hit her up to the tune of 80 miles an hour if pressed for time. Generally speaking, it imay Ijc said that finny creatures which live near the surface of the sea are swift swimmers as coinpared with those who dwell in the depths. Thus the cut, whicli is a deep water species, is sluggish, and would stand no show at all in a race with the mackerel or herring., Ik se latter, which are distinctly pe-> lagic, depend for their living upon their activity, in pursuing agile prey, and tliev must, be quicker in their movements in order to , escape the attacks oi their own 'enemies. If the mackerel were as big as a Koul-sizeil shark, it prob-ahly would ht the speed champion of the ocean No fish is heller shaped for rapid going. Some years ago a yacht-buil-der in New York constructed a sloop with a hull pattereiud exactly after the underbody of a Spanish mackerel. She was called the Undine, and, "f tradition does not lie, she never was Lila , |ll( , aft( _ t » hid. s-ln: wa S mc'dell, d, „hc 'bad her f, 1 latest breadth of beam forward of amidships—a decidedly novel idea in 'o.ilbuiW'iMH'. One may say, indeed, iha all modern Water-craft are more ' f s "«W.kc in their make-up ; yet, Hie whole it is surprising that mat line •arejii.'tects 4iav c flo* striveM wore earnestly* than iliey have d 0,,?, i , m ' lm 'ls li'om Xatmv's own i"!iSir s <,f a<iua,ic