Page 3 Advertisements Column 2

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1970, 4 January 1907, Page 3

FIGHTING IRISH. ti PECULIAR ANIMALS THAT ARE t POUND ONLY IN SIAMESE WATERS. c A favorite recreation in Siam is s watching the figh Liiish, a species of iish found m the waters of no other country. The fish cannot live £ in unity, and if two arc placed in a ( bowl they will instantly engage in a struggle “to the death.” It is no unusual thing to see in the streets of Siam crowds of natives chatting and gesticulating around a bowl containing a number of these fish, which they bet on in the same way as more civilised people do on racehorses. Intense excitement reigns amongst the natives as they watch the fish lighting within the bowl. These peculiarly quarrelsome fish are very similar to the common pike in appearance, with the exception that they are not in the possession of gills.' Their fins, too, are remarkably sharp, and these they use with terrible ~ effect upon one another, iilood gazes from their sides, ami yet they persist in lighting until per- ! haps only two are left alive, ami then the survivors turn on one another until only one is left out ol perhaps a dozen placed in the tub. Although tlie lighting iish are exceptionally good to eat, the majority • of natives esteem them only for tlieir ’ fighting propensities, which afford 1 them amusement and excitement everv day.

It is stated in St. Petersburg that tiie £40,000 stolen from the Treasury van lias been shipped abrosui*