Cheaper Than A Tallow Dip

A nsh dealer i ín a aan francisco market had on his slab the other day two specimens of a fish not frequently seen there, but plenty from Vancouver island northward. In plain commercial langniage it is known as the candle fish. Technically the name is thaleichthys pacificus, a remarkable species of the family salmonidíe, strictly a sea fish, approaching the coast to spawn, but never entering rivers. The specimens that were shown a Cali reporter measure a foot in length and have somewhat the appearance of an eel, exccpt the head, which is pointed and conical. It has a large mouth. The color is ffreenish on the back, passing1 into silvery white on the sides and belly, which is sparsely spotted with dirty yellow. The Indians of Vancouver island and vieinity use the fish both for food and light. It is the fattest or most oleag1inous of all fishes, and, it is said, of all animáis. It is impossible to either boil or fry it, for the moment it is subjected to a certain heat It turns to oil. The Indians who use the fish for food take them, and, without cleanin them, run a skewer through the eyes and suspend them in them in the thick smoke that arises from wood flres. The fish acquires the flavor of the wood and the smoke helps to preserve it. When the Indians want to make a meal of the fish they heat them, reduce them to oil and drink the oiL When they want a light they take a dried fish, -draw through it a piece of rush pith or a strip from the inner bark of the cypress tree, a species of arbor vito, as a wiek, a needie of hard wood being1 used for the purpose. The fish is then lighted at one end and burns steadily until consumed.