Fish are scaly things to have around, but with all this talk about Seattle being the most important center of the fishing industry on the coast, it is proper that some attention should be paid to the following communication from I. Zack W. Alton, an old and respected reader of this paper, who protests against the failure of fishily inclined citizens to pay proper attention to the rare fish of Puget sound.
    There is not the slightest excuse for Seattle's inactivity along this line. It should take steps at once to preserve to posterity positive proof of the existence of the remarkable fish that once abounded in old man Hood's canal, an well as those killed by the fish-eating oysters recently annihilated by the Olympia brand.
    But, enough. Here is Alton's letter. It speaks for itself:
    Editor of The Star: This is a protest from an ardent admirer of rare fish. Why is it that you carry so much news about the salmon, halibut and trout fishing, and pay no attention to the rarer fish that only can be located by the careful angler?
    You newspaper fellows sit up and take notice when a cargo of two or three hundred thousand pounds of halibut comes in, and I have seen it mentioned a dozen times that 1,000 cases have been sent to the flood sufferers at Dayton.
    Now, whiy in the name of common sense didn't the Chamber of Commerce fit out an expedition to round up a salvager sucker for the benefit of those people whose food and clothing have not been destroyed, but merely covered over with water.
Might have taken some trouble to keep it in fresh water en route, but think of the great good that could even yet be accomplished with one of these faithful salvagers.
    Of course you, as a wise editor, know all about the salvager sucker, but as I am going to ask you to publish this letter, it will be well to explain for the benefit of those just arrived from the far East.
    The fish is found only in the waters of Discovery bay, in Puget sound. It is about two feet long and is equipped with powerful fins and a tail which sweeps up and down. Instead of sidewise, as in ordinary suckers. Just below its mouth is a cup-like growth. Now, the most wonderful part of this fish is this cup. It can, by placing the cup against the side of a rock, or any object, and sucking in produce a vacuum in the cup which cannot be broken except by the use of dynamite. Then, by working its fins and making great sweeps with its tail, it can raise to the surface of the water objects weighing two tons or more.
    With one good salvager on the job, all the groceries now at the bottom of the Miami river could be easily recovered.
    The fish is wild at first, but by tying a rope to its tail and giving it something to eat each time it comes to the surface with a box, it can soon be trained to work at a rapid rate.
    Of course, this is only one of the rare fish to be found in Puget sound, and the only reason I mention it is because of the crying need for one at the present time. The only drawback is that so many of these salvagers have been caught and taken to the South seas to hunt pearls, that there may not be any left. But with a fund of money, one could at least make a search of Discovery bay for possible survivors.

Yours truly,

I. ZACK W. ALTON.