The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1867-06-22


The bodies of fish are so flexible as to
aid them in all their movements, while
the various fms assist either in balancing
the body or in helping it to progress
Many sea fish are curiously shaped, such
as the hammer. headed shark, tho globe
FISH, the monk fish, etc., but fish of all
kinds are admirably adapted to their
mode of life and the place where they live,
rs, for instance, in n ave where light has
never penetrated, fish are found without
eyes This is a tact in connection with
the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Fresh
water FISH, do not, however, vary much in
shape, most of them being very elegant.
Fish are nearly insensible to pain, and are
cold blooded, their blood being only two
degrees warmer than the element in which
they swim. Their brains are smallin com.
parison to the size of their bodies-much
smaller than is the ease with birds and
quadrupeds. The senses of sight and
hearing, are, however, we'll developed in
most fish, as are also those of smell and
taste, particularly the sense o fsmell which
chiefly guides them in their search for
food. 1t is owing to the latter that strong
smell NO bats are so successfully employ
ed in fishing. Some naturalists have re-
marked that fish do not hear well, but a
recent writer on the subject states that
this is contrary to his experience. as he
has found them as quick in that faculty as
they are sharp in seeing. Have We uo,
all read" he asks, "of pet fish being sum
moned by means ola bell aud of trOuts that
have been whistled to their food like
dogs :" Water is an excellent conductor
of sound; it conveys a noise of any kind
to a greater distance. aud at nearly as
great a speed as air. Beujumin Franklin
used to experiment on water as n conduc-
tor, and soon arrived at the conclusion
that its powers in this way are wonderful
Most kinds of fish are vt,raciuus feeders,
and prey upon each other without the
slightest ceremony. The digestion of
many is so rapid as only to be compared
to the action of fire; and in good feeding
grounds the growth of the fish usually
corresponds to its power of eating. In
the sea. shoals of one kind of fish appears
to have no other object than to chase an
other kind, with a view to eating them
a practice which is initiated on a smaller
scale in the lake and river. As if it were
to compensate for this wholesale d~estrnc-
ton Of fish life, Nature has endowed this
class of animals with an enorm power
of reproduction. Fish yield their eggs
BY tens Of thousands or millions. according
-. H. l,rwo- ~ he - - --~
in the progress of their growth. There is
nothing in the animal world that can be
compared to their fecunditv, except, per.
haps, a queen bee. which has fifty or six
ty thousand young each season; or the
white ant, which produces eggs at the rate
fifty per minute, and gneS on laying for a
period of unknown duration. We may
also except that terrible domestic insect.
which Is popularity supposed to become 1
great grandmother IN t~wenty-fuuT hours
and certain the little aphides of the
galden, some of which produce one hun.
dred thousand millions of young in a year
as well as the common hOuse-fy which pro.
duees twenty millions eggs a season
When il Is stated that the Goldfish yield,
Its eggs in million, and that a herring 81
six or seven ounces in weight is provided
with about thirty thousand ova, it will al
once beseen that the multiplying power Of
fish is enormous; but then the drain on
fish life is of corresponding magnitude.
Millions upon millions never come to life.
but rot away in the sea; and of those
that do ripen it is calculated that full nine
~ per cent. of the young fish perish be-
fore they are six months old. Were only
half the eggs to como to life, the sea would
abound with so much animal life, that il
would soon be impossible for a boat to
move il the water. Tho magnitude Of
the fish supply at the present time will
be rendered apparent when it is stated
that a single shOal Of behring's consists of
millions of individual fish and takes up a
space in the sea some miles in extent; yet
it offers no im2ediment to navigation.
It is impossible to believe all the stories
thatare told ofthe Chinese mode of bree-
ding fish. from evident exaggeration, but
we will venture to give the particulars of
one ingenious method of artificial hafching
which the people Of the fpwery land resort
to, and which is certainly to US barbarians.
a piscatOriaI novelty. When the proper
season arrives for Matching the fsb,spawn.
which We have stated is carried into the
interior by regular traders in the article. a
hens egg is emptied b. suckipgo out the nat
ural contents through "A small aperture.
The shell is her filed With spawn. and
the opening closed up, after which it is
placed a few days under a hen. By-and-
b. the shell is broken and the contents are
placed IN a vessel of water warmed by the
sun only. The fish eggs speedily burst,
and in a short time the yo- ny fry arc able
to be transported to a,lake or a river of or,
binary temperature, when they are left
to grow to maturity with no other notice
bestowed upon them than is required in
supplying them with a little food.