The Fishy Smiths

by Mike Bruton

  ‘After I had been correcting drawings and putting in scales for 18 months, I had 12 pencilled drawings ready for the artists to ink in, but they were unable to do them because of examinations. So in desperation one afternoon I took up the pen and found to my amazement that my hand was steady. From that day, I never looked back as far as illustrations were concerned. At the end of that year, after Pat and Denys had written their examinations, they worked full time at drawing for a while. Then they left, and I did the remaining drawings and paintings for the book.

  ‘Each illustration took from 8 hours to 68 hours. I remember one species had a green body and red spots. They were all done in water colour and I dared not let the green and the red touch. It took me 60 hours to paint. If I had to do that now, I would use waterproof ink for the red dots and paints for the green background and I would take far less time. Another fish, a sole, had 8 000 scales. I did the scaling for 24 hours (three full days). JLB pointed out that you would not be able to see the scales once it was reduced, and that I should just indicate them. I replied, “I couldn’t. I either had to do the thing as it was or not at all” (MM Smith, 1987).

  Margaret, speaking of a university student artist who was ‘very good at colours but useless at scales’, said:

  ‘She got tired of drawing scales so just did “wiggle, wiggle” with scales and you can’t do “wiggle, wiggle” with scales, you have to count them.

  ‘To work out how many scales to fit in you have to use trigonometry, calculating by triangles. One fish was very troublesome, I said to JLB that if I could cheat I’d get it … and you know what that fish had done, it had cheated, it had put in one extra scale! So I went through it scale by scale, found the extra scale and drew it in.

  ‘Painting fish as they are collected also means that the artist must be very quick, for fish rapidly lose their colours. … You learn to be very careful because reds fade to purple, blues go to green and some lose their colours completely when they die’ (Richards, 1987).

  Hester Locke (1986), one of the artists recruited by Margaret, recalls those early days:

  ‘In the spring of 1945 I became the first member of a small team of part-time artists who joined Margaret Smith in the enormous task of preparing the illustrations needed for a comprehensive publication of the ichthyological research by Dr JLB Smith. This work became the definitive Sea Fishes of Southern Africa. As Dr Smith … was still a full time senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at Rhodes, his fish research was done in his limited spare time and the collection was housed partially at his home at the top of Gilbert Street. This meant that the trainee artists had to work in the Smiths’ living room or, in good weather, on the shady verandah.

  ‘My own introduction to scientific illustration was a rude shock. From a background of child art centres and teacher training courses in creative painting, I had to learn a new terminology and quickly acquire fine-motor skills previously undreamed of. Most important of all, I had to learn to observe and recognise subtle variations of e.g. body line. I had to practise measuring accurately and to count with infinite care, items which indicated species specific data. No longer could I sketch a few casual crescent shapes to indicate scales: each scale had its own serial position and the exact number was imperative. Soon the team members began to invent new tools to replace our crude maths instruments. No. 10 sewing needles replaced the metal points of dividers, etc.

  ‘As some of the specimens, notably the deepsea fishes, were very dark in colour, taking accurate counts became a nightmare. Naturally “Doc” and Margaret carefully checked all our pencil work before we were allowed to ink it in. As no colour washes are permitted in line drawings, we had to use dots to indicate dark markings or shading. This tedious task had us all sighing with frustration. As we graduated to working in colour, life became much more exciting and by mid-year in 1946 we were rewarded with an invitation to join the Smiths on an expedition to Mozambique.

  ‘Throughout this period the artists aimed to complete one drawing per day, and every night we proudly pinned our finished products to the dining room wall. To add to the interest in our work we were allowed to join a few of the collecting trips, e.g. we went to Inhaca one day and experienced … firsthand the stress of making swift colour notes before the colours faded, all in a boat that was rocking and dipping. This sight of the exquisite jewelled creatures which came out of the water gave us new concepts regarding the iridescent quality of the colours on fishes. … I count these many exciting tasks and events amongst some of the most meaningful experiences’ (Locke, 1986).

  Peter Jackson who in 1972, late in his long and interesting career (Jackson, 2010), was appointed a Senior Research Fellow in the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology, had obtained his BSc from RUC in 1948. During his undergraduate years he went on several fish-collecting trips with the Smiths along the Eastern Cape coast, at the time that the artists were preparing paintings for the first edition of Sea Fishes. He remembers:

  ‘Because of his fear of fire destroying all this work, the spare room of the Smiths’ house in Gilbert Street was totally devoid of all furniture except for a large, much-travelled suitcase in the centre. In this the drawings, each covered with tissue paper, were placed when completed. We would sometimes sit around this in a circle on the bare floor, while an illustration was passed from hand to hand with the Professor expounding on the fish depicted and Margaret, if asked, telling about a drawing, colouring or mounting technique’ (Jackson, 1996).

  A strange ritual indeed!

  John Day, Professor of Zoology at the University of Cape Town until his retirement in 1974, graduated from RUC in 1930 during Smith’s tenure as a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry. In his review of marine biology in A History of Scientific Endeavour in South Africa, he remembers a visit to the Smith household in Grahamstown:

  ‘I visited him and his new wife, Margaret, just after the war and found the lounge littered with specimens and paintings, for his wife and students from the arts school had illustrated practically every species in colour’ (Day, 1977).

  The Sea Fishes of Southern Africa by JLB Smith was printed by the Cape Times and published by the Central News Agency on 25th June 1949. In this edition Margaret Smith illustrated 685 species, Patricia Parkin 98, Denys Davies 90, Hester Locke 26 and Valerie de la Harpe 13, with JLB Smith providing many ink drawings.

  For subsequent editions of Sea Fishes, new artists would join the team – some under the direct tutelage of Margaret – and would go on to forge distinguished careers in the field of fish illustration. Elizabeth Tarr joined the Ichthyology Institute as a Research Assistant in 1973 but Margaret soon recognised her potential as an artist. After participating in a fish research expedition to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, during which she took colour notes on live fishes, she developed her skills and became a highly competent fish artist. In 1982 Jean-Michel Vinson, an accomplished natural history artist, joined the Institute staff and worked for a year on drawings for the revision of the Sea Fishes book. Dave Voorvelt then joined the Institute in 1983 to help complete the revision and soon showed excellent talent and devised several new illustration techniques of his own. Elaine Heemstra was appointed as an artist in 1988 and also made a significant contribution. Even though each artist had their own individual style, and worked in different media (water colour, acrylic or inks) each could be relied on to render scientifically accurate illustrations (Voorvelt, 1996).

  Liz Tarr and Dave Voorvelt, expert fish artists.

  JLB Smith regarded the first edition of his book as ‘an experiment’, writing:

  ‘It is a strictly scientific regional monograph embracing the results of 20 years of intensive research, but was deliberately written to be usable by the ordinary man. Both phrasing and terminology were simplified as far as possible, without loss of scientific standard. An accurate and detailed illustration was prepared for practically every species, certainly of every one any ordinary person is likely to see. There are 1,270 separate illustrations, each
of which took from 8–50 hours of drawing work. … In addition there appears for the first time in this book a unique universal key, quite simple in operation, by means of which any ordinary man may track any fish known, and even recognise as new any not yet recorded. … Each illustration was checked four times, each fin and scale count, and other scientific data, four times. There were three sets of proofs and each was checked by three different groups of people. The Index contains close on 100,000 names and they were checked and cross-referenced six times in all. With twenty years of intensive research as a background, over 30,000 hours of work in compilation by all who took part, crowded into three ½ years of solid labour, were necessary to produce this one book.’

  In his notes on ‘How this book was made’ in the 1953 edition of The Sea Fishes of Southern Africa, JLB Smith observes:

  ‘It is in many ways a pity that by some odd chance the systematic study of fishes has often been left to scientists not able to comprehend the wonder of the living creatures, and concerned only with the purely taxonomic aspects of form and structure of dead material in bottles. This has resulted in an unfortunate gap between angler and systematist, probably wider than in any other popular branch of natural history. As an angler, the author of this book was from youth eager to learn about the fishes he encountered, but found the existing literature baffling and unsatisfactory. Faced with no alternative but to master the subject, he set out to do that.

  ‘Where this book differs from most others is that it gives the ordinary man the power to track by scientific methods in a few moments any fish already known from our waters, and to recognise as such any not yet recorded. While this is perhaps its most important feature, at the same time it may be stressed that this work is essentially a full scientific revisional monograph summarising the results of research on our fishes to date. The descriptive scientific detail may to other workers at first sight appear rather meagre, but a combination of description, keys and accurate illustration covers every important scientific character in every species it has been possible to examine’ (JLB Smith, 1953).

  Judging by the Foreword written by the President of the CSIR, Basil Schonland, when the 1949 edition of Sea Fishes was published, Smith had achieved his objective:

  ‘As a comprehensive and critical scientific revision of the marine fishes of this region it will be a standard work of permanent value. It will also be of great interest to the large number of people who are not specialists in fishes but who are interested in knowing more about the types, habits and distribution of those they see and catch. The author has devoted much ingenious care to making this book one which the layman can use and enjoy. He has provided an original and easily-operated means of identifying any fish so far known in our waters. His wide knowledge of their habits and of the lore of fishermen shows itself on every page and makes interesting and exciting reading’ (Schonland, 1949).

  Although the first edition of Sea Fishes was relatively expensive (52 shillings and six pence; about R2,593 in today’s currency), despite the subsidisation of the costs of the colour plates by the Sea Fishes Trust, it was very well received by the public, with the first 5,000 copies selling out in four weeks (Gon, 2002). As Humphry Greenwood (1968) later wrote in an obituary to JLB Smith, ‘There is probably no other ichthyologist who can claim to have [had] queues forming outside bookshops on the day his regional monograph was published’. The new book was soon dubbed ‘the angler’s bible’ and the eminent American ichthyologist, Carl Hubbs (1969), described it as a ‘sumptuously illustrated compendium’. Other tributes poured in: ‘… you have attained a permanent position in South African history as one of our great men’ (SG Shuttleworth); ‘… the finest piece of work I have seen for a long time … invaluable to all workers in the field of ichthyology’ (TC Marshall); and ‘… a monumental work that assures you a permanent place among the few who have contributed much to the furtherance of the knowledge of our fauna’ (SH Skaife) (Gon, 2002).

  The first edition of Sea Fishes had a massive impact on scientists and laypeople alike. In their correspondence stored in the Rhodes University Archive the Smiths recall many incidents:

  ‘A friend travelling in the Karoo spent a night at a country hotel. He was surprised to see the manager’s wife in deep study of the “Sea Fishes”, and asked her if she used the book much. “Oh, yes,” she said, “often. You see, people get tired of eating the same kind of fish all the time, so I hunt up other names for the menus” (Smith, 1961).

  ‘We have had many hundreds of letters from all over the world from scientists and laymen who use the book. They include officers and crews of steamers which cover the seas of the globe, and traders and officials on islands equally remote. Scientists who worked in the remote Pacific wrote to say that it was the first book opened in tracking any unknown fish there. … No matter to what remote country I travel, the book is there to greet me. Constantly it brings stories, and often laughter. … Another friend, who is a collector of natural-history books, visited a famous book shop in London and asked to see what they had in his line. The manager took him to an inner store where his best pieces were kept and, producing a book, said: “This is the finest publication in natural history from any part of the world.” It was the “Sea Fishes”’ (Smith, 1961).

  The Book Fund made a modest profit of £350 and published a second edition of the book in May 1950 (with a print run of 500 copies), and an enlarged and revised third edition in 1953. The fourth edition (1961) was brought up-to-date with a synoptic index, and a fifth edition was published in 1965. In 1977 a new edition was published by Valiant Press under the title Smith’s Sea Fishes of Southern Africa, still with JLB Smith as the sole author.

  Later editions (following the initial 1949 edition) were illustrated by Moira Lambert, Patricia Parkin, Elizabeth Tarr, Jean-Michel Vinson, Ann Lefebvre, Elaine Heemstra and Dave Voorvelt.

  Thereafter, a completely revised, multi-authored edition of the book, renamed Smiths’ Sea Fishes (to recognise the contributions of both Smiths), co-edited by Margaret Smith and Phil Heemstra, was published by Macmillan in 1986, Southern Book Publishers in 1995 and Struik Nature in 2003.

  Despite the success of the book, Smith was bitter about the effort that it had taken for it to be financed. In a letter dated 22nd September 1949 to Professor TA Stephenson in England, he wrote:

  ‘The whole thing, from before the actual start, has been one long desparate (sic) and grim battle, right to the very end. The money was not just provided …Behind the pleasant words in the introduction lies a whole series of desperate engagements with people whose outlook on life are not yours and mine … I suppose I have become exceedingly ruthless because I was determined to see this work published … I have emerged unscathed, but with few illusions about the princes of commerce and very much tougher than I ever expected I could become … I have had to fight with tooth and claw for all this.’

  Sea Fishes is much more than a taxonomic treatise as it includes extensive introductory chapters on fish anatomy, distribution, senses, whether they feel pain, reproduction, growth and ageing, swimming speed, coloration and bioluminescence, respiration, osmoregulation, temperature tolerances, buoyancy, sound production and migrations, as well as on dangerous and venomous fishes, and the effects of fishing. There are also general notes on fish taxonomy, nomenclature and classification as well as on oceanography and the history of ichthyology in South Africa.

  Of particular interest to anglers and other laypeople are the general notes on fish biology. For instance, the elf is described as follows in one of the later editions of the book (Smith & Heemstra, 1986):

  ‘Swift and voracious, elf bite viciously and fight well; large fish often jump repeatedly (“saltatrix” is Latin for a “dancing girl”). Elf take almost any moving lure and most flesh. With a shoal of sardines or other small fishes as their prey, they will gorge themselves in a veritable feeding frenzy, regurgitate, and then start all over again. They are, in turn, preyed upon by larger fishes, such as kob
and sharks. Elf are delicious eating, both fresh and smoked, but the delicate flesh softens rapidly and does not keep well; excellent bait, especially for line-boat fishing. Van der Elst (1976) has published a comprehensive work on the biology of the elf; spawning takes place off Natal from September to December, hence to conserve the stock, the closed season in Natal is from September to November inclusive.’

  Admittedly these notes on the elf are more comprehensive than those for most fishes in the book, as the elf is a very popular and well-known angling fish, but they do demonstrate that, to write a book of this nature, you need to be both a scientist and an angler; a laboratory-based taxonomist would not have had sufficient knowledge of fish biology and behaviour to do so.

  Later editions of Sea Fishes included less information of interest to anglers as an increasing number of species had to be added. An interesting exception is the chapter on seabreams (family Sparidae), which includes popular angling species such as riverbream, carpenter, fransmadam, santer, dageraad, stumpnose, roman, slinger, musselcracker, blacktail and steenbras. This chapter, written by the two Smiths, still includes extensive biological information.

  Sea Fishes set a new standard for a scientific publication that is useful to scientists and also accessible to the lay public. It is used by scientists, anglers, aquarists, hobbyists, commercial fishermen, spearfishermen, divers and naturalists in southern and eastern Africa and throughout the Indo-Pacific region, as many of the tropical species are shared by the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

  John Wallace, previously the Director of the Port Elizabeth Museum and a Board member of the Ichthyology Institute, remembers: