Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-02-19
The Sagacity Of Fishes,

Seth Green, the great nsh-grOwer III
we may SO designate him), was inter
viewed by a Rochester IN. W repor-
ter, the other day, and gave several in
teresting bits of experience he has had
in his encounters with the finny tribe.
He claims that fishes, as well as beasts
and birds, have languages, and that
1.-THE man of the future will have to un-
derstand them" "Fishes have" says
Mr.. Green, "a sagacious intelligence
not an instinct-which teaches them
to profit by the fortunes or misfortunes
that befall the family of fishes. How
many men are there of whom the same
can be said with invariable truth?
Talk about natural sagacity; why, /
can point you to as striking instances
Of it, in primitive form, among fishes
as you ever heard of among men. In
the winter of 1910 hunted deer and
fished for salmon trout in and around
Bonaparte Lakes, just north of Herki-
mer county in the Adirondacks. I
fished, putting down 100 hooks
through holes i'm the ice about eight
rods apart. These hooks were baited
with good sized minnows, as full of life
as though at liberty. After the lines
had been down the first night took
from them in the morning twenty-five
good big trout. Each successive morn
ing I got less and less, until on the
eighth day the number of trout had
diminished to seven or eight. But
every bait was gone from every hook
as OIL the first morning when I made
the big haul. knew the trout hadn't
all been taken from those waters, but
it was also apparent that I couldn't
catch any more without removing the
tackle. So I cut new holes in the ice
and moved down about quarter of a
mile. There my results were in exact
ly the same ratio as the first, and /
had to move again in seven or eight
days. One day ran a line of hooks in
such direction that one of them
tcame right over rocky bar, where
there was open water. decided to
try an ex experiment with this hook. 1
fastened the upper end Of the line to
an overhanging piece of brush, SO that
nothing could interfere with the bait
below without making the brush wrig-
SNlA~e! !Thsp-I lay down to watch. Very
rn1 ho--...Isa .l,e pneg ntteeheg e
minnow as possioie' .oonan
j snanned at it very cautiously, ,eepsn ;r,
-" h;s mouth before he had 'anl'
@ a,esod It. 80 as to prevent swa'io" ~,
; onvtbinr he did not want. When '.
! a,;nnow in its fight had gone as i"i
g the line would permit, Mr.. Trout - .n"S =,
Z n,ore forcible snap at it, so rs " ', -
20 :. oIn,ost entirely from the hoo
!? Down TO the bottom sank 'ne IA, -,
~ ord down after it darteo AZ
Is Trout, gobbling it down at a lno'S 10
~ ~ Lpowing that it was now sale :. ..;oI G
~ %von that was a pretty sharp tr'oN
6s his and it was just that gamy wy ;,
,o;ng things under the surface :,
10 had compelled me to move 81 av,
81 Iy How came that trout an. .d
Il c,her one IN the same waters " o.
q ,,,;s identical mode of reasonlns'
Is 'o;ons and tactics, except oy ine
Is go language which informed MN
4 actly what had been the us ;o,,
3 consequences with trout wn.In '. .,
Z tha other hand, taken the oai' "
q ont nrecaution and strategy
6 oourae all the fish, even IN 'he
16 locality, were not privileged 70 se. 60,
,oo struycles and capture OF the unio. !.
-0 10 ones But there were lew VI
4 M .h.t didn't know of it, all the .
II ,n"s o,ar measured powers OF 81
! Is gy with these same SINAI nrnun[
i 73 7 heat them on their own s
81 managed it SO that when . ~,
IL line wriggling could drop II suo .,,a
d l79 III. 80 hottom. in which case the
~c,7 invariably darted down All" The
q %. ,he minnow, hook and all. ,.e .
,,;oht have beaten me on 'hl'
ed Rale n,.o If I had given them time
p cent a,'D' ;. heads together and GOSSIP
Y cent cent .ne .,.tter till they could agree
Itch .ome new tactics. But : ~
- 1o-e had another experience
9, nth n Cobourg, Grafton, and ooloo
% .,',ar tnew one old trout up tnere
"n nro .,on;a that lived under the 80
p loo for four years. men'
host but I couldn't eaten nm
rSpdlse" Spls .oor,e He always manageu
- "'uav with it without injury 10
62.05 ,d tn the demOiitloh
81 90 OF" =. ,rbop there was an
rely be -, a how came along Win
to JUS - hook and q worm, ana
8 who'll 90. o,d trout right out the v
Demo cast. gave him five oo,,~ .a
6sh. and. was glad to get nin, :.
/. - the after trying so hard ana 80 aa %,
q 70 " s ".s nurpose. That old fish nAu
's'' ny y culiar ways ana "ea'