The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-09-21
Clever Fishes

The Eaton boy Fastening home for the
holidays provides himself with tin tube
and Pocketful of peas-we beg the pres
ent Etonians pardon We should have said
he used to do 50 formerly when there
were bnys at and backed by some
skill as a mafksman, Herewith constituted
himself an intolerable nuisance 10 every
village and vehicle he passed on his road
home. The Macoushee Indian makes a
better use Of his blow-tube he putfs
small arrows and hardened balls Of clay
through it with unerring aim, doing great
execution amongst birds and other small
game. Now the ch1todon (chsetodon ros-
trdttts) which is more OF less a native Of
the eastern seas from Ceylon to Japan,
rather perhaps resembles the Macoushee
Indian than the Eaton boy, though his
gun, shooting tube, or blow-pipe, or what
ever it may be termed, is a natural one.
His nose is really kind Of beak, :"
through which he has the power Of propell-
ing a small drop Of water with some force
and considerable accuracy Of aim. Near
the edge of the water is perhaps a spray Of
weed, a twig, or a tuft Of grass on 1t sits
fly, making his toilet IN the water mir
III btlbNs ANOSlihtuo dNlN duCGb CAUTIOUSLY
under the Ay; then he stealthily projects
his tube from the water, takes a deadly
aim, as though he We're contesting for same
pIscatorial Elcho SHE d, and pop goes the
watery bullet
Poor insect, what little day of sunny
bliss is thine
Knocked over by the tres. herous missile,
drenched, stunned, half drowned, she
drops from her perch into the water below,
to be sucked in by The chetodon. But ii
We have fishes who can shoot their game.
we have also fishes who can hsh for it /,
aye and fish for it with rod and line, and
bait as deity as ever angler cuaxed gudg-
cons from the ooze of the New River Or
salmon from the flashing torrent Of the
Spey. Witness the clumsy looking mon
ster the fishing frog tioph,'ts P,scatori,ts)
Fnghtful and hIdeous is he according t.
our vulgar notions Of loneliness. which the
lophius possibly might disagree with. The
beast Is sometimes five OF SIX feet In
LENGTH with an enormous head In propOr-
ton to the rest u its body, and with huge
sacks like bag-nets attached Ia it's lll-cov
ers, in which it slows it's victims and
what a cavernous mouth Surely a tish So
apparently omnlvorous, would brighten
from its neighborhood all other fish, and
would, if its powers of locomotion were in
accordance with its size, be the terror Of
the seas to fish smaller than itself but
Providence knOweth how to temper its
gifts, and the lophius is but am Indifferent
swimmer, and Is too clumsy to support a
predatory existence by the fieetness Of its
motions How, then, is this huge capaci-
ty satisfied Mark those two elongated
tentacles which spring from the creatures
nose, and how they taper away like yerlta-
Bile fishing rods. To the end IL them is
attached by a line or slender flament a
small glitteriDg morsel If membrane. This
is the bait. The hooks are set IN the
mouth Of the fisherman down below. But
how Is the animal to induce the fish to ven
ture within reach Of those formidable
hooks Now mark this perfect feat Of
angling. How does the Thames fisherman
attract the gudgeons They are shy he
must not let them see him, yet he must
draw them to him, and he does it by stir
ring up the mud upon the bottom. ''In
that cloud Of mud is food" say the gudg
cons. Then the angler plies his rod and
bait. just so the lophius proceeds, and
he too stirs up the mud with his fms and
tail. This serves not only to hide him,
but to attract the fish. Then he plies his
roo, and the ghttering bait waves to and
fro like living insect CHANGING through the
turbid water. The gudgeOns, or rather
gobles, rush towards it. Beware be-
ware !" But when did gudgeon attend to
warning yet Suddenly up rises the cav