C LA S S IV .— A M P H IB IA .
Nil,
C LA S S V .— P IS C E S .
There are no less than seventy-five different kinds of fishes at
St. Helena, hut th ey ,are all marine. Although there are brooks and
running streams which fish might inhabit, there is no record of
the East India Company, or any one since . their time, having endeavoured
to introduce fresh-water fishes, and the only importation
in this respect is characterized by the little gold fish -Cyprinm auratus,,
which was doubtless 'taken to the Island from China, and is still
met with occasionally in garden ponds, as well as in glass globes on
sitting-room tables.
A collection of the St. Helena fishes had never been made until I
presented mine to the British Museum ; and fortunately it fell into the
hands of Hr. Albert Gunther, who, with his well-known ability and
«are, examined and described sixty-five,* including one new genus and
sixteen species which had hitherto been unknown to science. These
seventeen may therefore be considered as quite peculiar to the place,
and to them it seems to me admissible to add, as natives, thirty-one
more, which, though found elsewhere, are so closely identified with the
Island, through inhabiting the rocky shores in shallow water, as to
merit a distinction from some twenty others which are inhabitants
of deeper water and are common to tropical and Atlantic seas.
Nine species of the St. Helena fishes are found also in the West
Indies; and others, amongst those in my collection, have also been
taken as far off as Pondicherry, Japan, Australia, Panama, Zanzibar,
Madeira, and the Mediterranean.
So far, the examination of the fish fauna of the Island has progressed,
but there are doubtless many hidden treasures still in those
waters surrounding it to repay the future naturalist who undertakes
to search for them. Seven more, which were not in my collection,
are known to. exist—viz., two varieties of the albicore, the baracoota
:(which, with mackerel and the former, constitutes the chief food of
the population), the bream, the Roman-fish, the bread-fish, and the
* Proceedings of Zoological Society of London, March 26, 18.68, aijd April 8,1869; ftl.sp
Catalogue of Pishes in the British Museum, by Dr. Albert Günther, vol. viii.
cod. These last four are now rarely seen, simply, I believe, through
the indolence of the fishermen.
But with all this bountiful supply of good fish, the visitor to-
St. Helena cannot fail to be astonished at the' indifference with
which it is regarded. The fisherman there has no storms or angry'
seas to battle with, but still there is no system of fishing, and there-
is no fishing trade. Beyond a very partial and scanty contribution
to thè supply of food for the six or seven thousand inhabitants, no
Use is made of the fish or profit derived from it.
In the Monthly Register of the year 1S10, it is recorded, and
the authority is reliable; that in the month of October, 3613 pounds-
of mackerel, 11,453 pounds of albicore, and 523 pounds of ground
fish, that is the best table fish, were taken and brought into the»
market ; so that, during one month, the .fishing at St. Helena
yielded nearly seven tons of fish, not only good for food, but of ■ the
finest quality. I t is not very probable that the fishes, weary'
of the neglect to catch them, through succeeding years, or missing
the good cheer of the Honourable East India Company, have packed,
up their traps and gone elsewhere; but on the contrary, having
had everything their own way for half a century, it is most probable
that there are more fishes in the sea at St. Helena now than
there were in the year 1810. The simple fact is that, in 1874, no
fishery exists, and that if it did, and the fishes were properly sought-
for, a greater abundance than the yield of 1810 would be the result.
This would not only materially assist the distressed population of
the place, by affording a supply for home consumption, but also a very
profitable article of export in the form of salted, dried, and otherwise
cured fish.
With means, lying at their very door, which in other countries
would be and are turned to profitable account, the natives of St.
Helena are curiously regardless of it. The very fish of which upwards
of 11,000 pounds were taken at St. Helena in one month, is the same
as the Tunny fish, which, in the Mediterranean and along the southern
qoasts of France, is the source of so large a trade.
The small desultory amount of fishing which is now carried on
at St. Helena is with the hook and line only, either from the shore
or from small rowing boats which venture only some short distance
out to sea, Most of the natives fish for themselves ; they run
down to the sea shore, or the “ fishing-rock” as they term it, spend a
night there and bring back enough fish for a few days’ food, and if