The entire letter (of which a small part is photographed) says,
March 3, 1876
I have noticed an account of the discovery of Eyeless Fish in your mine in water of 128 degrees Fahrenheit. Is this so and can you forward any information as to its appearance and as well as circumstances of discovery. What are the chances of obtaining a specimen or specimen of these fish for scientific description. Have any yet been forwarded to parties for this purpose. If it will not be too much of a tax upon your time to answer these questions, you will greatly oblige
M. W. Vandenberg,
Fort Edward Institute
Was this guy nuts? Probably not! The Fort Edward Institute had been around for decades when this letter was written and Mr. Vandenberg is undoubtedly an instructor there. Just imagine how famous he could become if he was the first to scientifically evaluate this strange new
species of fish.
March 3, 1876
I have noticed an account of the discovery of Eyeless Fish in your mine in water of 128 degrees Fahrenheit. Is this so and can you forward any information as to its appearance and as well as circumstances of discovery. What are the chances of obtaining a specimen or specimen of these fish for scientific description. Have any yet been forwarded to parties for this purpose. If it will not be too much of a tax upon your time to answer these questions, you will greatly oblige
M. W. Vandenberg,
Fort Edward Institute
Was this guy nuts? Probably not! The Fort Edward Institute had been around for decades when this letter was written and Mr. Vandenberg is undoubtedly an instructor there. Just imagine how famous he could become if he was the first to scientifically evaluate this strange new
species of fish.
Well then where did he hear of such a story? It seems that it was printed in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise newspaper on February 19, 1876 by Dan DeQuille. (Before we go any further, you must understand that Dan DeQuille was considered by many to be a greater satirist than Mark Twain when they worked on this paper together. The people of Virginia City certainly new this. The people in Nevada and California had probably already been tricked by one of his many earlier hoaxes. They wouldn’t be tricked again. But the Easterners did not know any of this. They probably thought that newspapers printed factual articles.)
This was his story:
Dateline: February 19, 1876
“The Mystery of the Savage Sump”
A most singular discovery was yesterday made In the Savage mine. This is the finding of a living fish in the water now flooding both the Savage and Hale and Norcross Mines. The fish were five in number, and yesterday afternoon wrehoisted up the incline in the large iron hoisting tank and dumped into the pump tank at the bottom of the vertical shaft. The fishes are eyeless, and are only about three or four inches in length. They are blood red in color.
The temperature of the water in which they are found is 128 degrees Fahrenheit - almost scalding hot. When the fish were taken out of the hot water in which they were found, and placed in a bucket of cold water, for the purpose of being brought to the surface, they died almost instantly. The cold water at once chilled their life blood.
In appearance these subterranean members of the finny tribe somewhat resemble gold fish. They seem lively and sportive enough while in there native hot water, notwithstanding the fact that they have no eyes nor even rudiments of eyes. The water by which the mines are flooded broke in at a depth of 2,200 feet in a drift that was getting pushed to the northward in the Savage. It rose in the mine - also the Hale and Norcross, the two being connected - to the height of 400 feet; that is, up to the 1,800 foot level. This would seem to prove a great subterranean reservoir or lake has been tapped, and from this lake doubtless came the fish hoisted from the mine last evening.
Eyeless fishes are frequently found in lakes of large caves, but we have never before heard of their existence in either surface or subterranean water the temperature of which was so high as is the water of those mines. The lower workings of the Savage mine are far below the bed of the Carson River, below the bottom of Washoe Lake - below any water running or standing anywhere within distance of ten miles of the mine.
The story was reprinted in New York newspapers in its entirety. And the Fort Edward Institute is in New York.
So did Mr. Vandenberg get his reply he so kindly asked for?
Answer, March 24/76
Not a particle of truth in the eyeless fish story. It is a hoax
This was his story:
Dateline: February 19, 1876
“The Mystery of the Savage Sump”
A most singular discovery was yesterday made In the Savage mine. This is the finding of a living fish in the water now flooding both the Savage and Hale and Norcross Mines. The fish were five in number, and yesterday afternoon wrehoisted up the incline in the large iron hoisting tank and dumped into the pump tank at the bottom of the vertical shaft. The fishes are eyeless, and are only about three or four inches in length. They are blood red in color.
The temperature of the water in which they are found is 128 degrees Fahrenheit - almost scalding hot. When the fish were taken out of the hot water in which they were found, and placed in a bucket of cold water, for the purpose of being brought to the surface, they died almost instantly. The cold water at once chilled their life blood.
In appearance these subterranean members of the finny tribe somewhat resemble gold fish. They seem lively and sportive enough while in there native hot water, notwithstanding the fact that they have no eyes nor even rudiments of eyes. The water by which the mines are flooded broke in at a depth of 2,200 feet in a drift that was getting pushed to the northward in the Savage. It rose in the mine - also the Hale and Norcross, the two being connected - to the height of 400 feet; that is, up to the 1,800 foot level. This would seem to prove a great subterranean reservoir or lake has been tapped, and from this lake doubtless came the fish hoisted from the mine last evening.
Eyeless fishes are frequently found in lakes of large caves, but we have never before heard of their existence in either surface or subterranean water the temperature of which was so high as is the water of those mines. The lower workings of the Savage mine are far below the bed of the Carson River, below the bottom of Washoe Lake - below any water running or standing anywhere within distance of ten miles of the mine.
The story was reprinted in New York newspapers in its entirety. And the Fort Edward Institute is in New York.
So did Mr. Vandenberg get his reply he so kindly asked for?
Answer, March 24/76
Not a particle of truth in the eyeless fish story. It is a hoax