Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-08-11
FISH LIFE.
And Some of its Mysteries.

LE, u. Prime in New York journal Of Commerce. ]
Trout will not rise freely to the fly in
snow water, and large trout are especially
wary of anything which pretends to be a
living moth when the days for moth life
have not yet come. All over the lake the
trout were swimming in large schools,
lifting their heads now and then out of
water | could see thousands, and,
watching them closely, at length discov-
cred n small gnat on the surface, which
had come out in an untimely Matching.
The memories of the older fish We're slug
gish, and they did not believe that these
were eatablc objects. 1t was only the
small fry that We're taking this food and
disturbing the otherwise flat surface of
the lake. | had n nav experience i'll ang-
ling. / wanted few fish for supper,
and when breeze rippled the surface L
cast for them. But no fish rose to my
cast Oh ripple, nor would one rise until
| put on the smallest dun and yellow
gnat, and cast on the fiat still water in
the calm. They were evidently feeding
on the small flies which had dropped
dead on the water and did not rise to them
as they flew along. 1 took dozen fish,
all small, by sinking my gnats, and draw
ing very slowly, with short gentle jerks,
n few inches at time. While the wind
blew and the water rippled, no fish would
come up to the surface.
These fish were very plump and lat, as
are all trout in the early season. What
do they fatten on The ice on this lake
is three to five feet thick from December
to May. The hills around it are covered
during this time with snow many feet
deep. There is no life outside of the
water. The mystery of fish food has yet
to be explained 1t were better perhaps
to say the mystery of fish flesh. 1t is
plain to me, from close observation for
many years, that trout do not necessarily
lose flesh when cut off from food. There
does not exist, or exists in very small de-
gree, in some fish, the law of animal life
that the flesh changes by the excretions
and re-supply through food and digestion.
have kept trout without food for months
in cold spring water, in which by con
slant microscopic examination | could
not detect a particle of animalcule life,
and without diminution Of weight.
have tried this experiment with care
many times. Do fish perspire? | sup
pose not.
In the winter, as we'll as other seasons,
trout feed on one another, but this will
scarcely account for the large growth
which the hatch of $780, 81 show in 1882
1t is true that out of the stomach and
throat of one of the trout taken this after
noon | extracted the undigested backbone
of another trout, which backbone was
only an inch shorter than that of the fisl
which had swallowed and digested his
relation. But none OF the stomachs o
the others contained any fish relics
foun them mostly empty, the only liv
ing animals there being now and then {
snail, shell and all, who beginning t.
move in the sunshine, which ought tC
have been summery, was caught by tn,
hungry trout. The view Of the mount
aims waking from Winter sleep, is full OF
interest 1t is not alone the vegetable
but large part of animal life, which ha
been in deep slumber. To freeze is no
always to kill animal or vegetable. In
. Vulnerable eggs or larvis of insects ar
frozen solid through the Winter, AS
came up the mountain l saw to-day thre,
varieties of butterflies or moths of con
siderable size, one of them two or thre
inches across, fitting in the sunshine
1t can not have been long since they wer
frozen Jumps in their cocoons. Toad
are not moving yet high up on the hill
but they are noisy in the valley. The
are still sleeping on the hillside. and
fancy have been frozen hard since Novenl
! ber. do not know that any one ha
! made catalogue of the animals whic
are frozen in the Winter, and revive i
the Summer. 1t would be interestin
and surprising to many