News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-06-26
SOMETHING ABOUT FISHES.
Whnt You May Tell the Boys When YOu
Take Them Out Saturday Afternoons.
BY II. QUAD.

| BY Ii. QUAD.
Let's take this Saturday to go fishing.
A father who can't throw in half day
with his boy now and then is poor
stick of man. If we fish from wharf
or log or boat we may sing and talk
as loud as we will, but we must keep
feet and hands as quiet as possible.
Why? Because the fish will feel US.
Fish do not hear, but they feel in place
of it. At great fish exhibition in New
York State a few years ago Seth Green
proved this fact to the people in very
plain manner. He placed brass band
among the aquaria, and at a given
signal every horn blew its loudest blast.
Not fish in any of the tanks moved,
Mr.. Green then took out his knife and
| along in front of the tanks, and 10
every fish made sudden Jump as the
jar reached him. If you are on a wharf
keep the feet still. If you are in boat
be twice as cautious. Every sound will
be taken up by the water and carried
along for many feet.
Let's post ourselves a bit as we fish.
Now, then, if you fish for rock-bass drop
your hook near an old wreck-close to
the piles OF a wharf-down beside a
rock. These bass are what might be
called domestic fish. They make their
homes in one spot instead of travelling
Oh II aif fhar
worm. Black bass feed in weedy spots
and along the channel banks. Mullet
and suckers will take the bait only when
the hook rests on the bottom. A pickerel
will bite at your hook much quicker if it
is moving.
Every species of fish has its regular
hours for feeding, the same as you have
for taking your meals, but bass and
pickerel digest their food the soonest,
and are therefore most always hungry.
A pike or pickerel weighing ten pounds
will pull dead weight of twenty pounds
off a level bank when hooked. These
same fish have been known to jump
at least four feet clear of the surface,
and to throw themselves from one pond
into another.
"Can fish see at night ?"
"Just as well as cat.
"Does he ever sleep?"
"He does. If you will watch a gold
fish for day or two you will find him
taking occasional maps"
"How fast can fish swim?"
eff man could invent some way to get
up a race between fishes the result
would astonish you. A pickerel is prob
ably one of the swiftest of our fresh
water fish. He moves for a short dis
tance so fast that you simply see
flash. Almost every species of fish can
see on all sides and behind him as weir
as in front. Their gills are the most
delicate filter in the world. Every tooth
in the mouth of fish which preys upon
other fish is set in such way that every
attempt to escape fastsns the victim
more firmly. A red-horse or mullet
weighing five pounds could not take a
small apple into its mouth. A pike
weighing three pounds could almost
swallow a mans fist. When a bass
is first hooked he will run toward
you. A pike or pickerel will run from
you. A sheephead and dogfsh vii
jump for the surface. A mullet will dive
for the bottom.
"Indeed, my boy, if I were your
teacher I'd sooner post you. on our
domestic fish, their anatomy, habits,
etc., than to have you sit for two hours
and rattle off to me in a sing-song way:
Goose Greek rises in the north
eastern part of Japan-and the Virgin
Islands are in the Caribbean Sea-and
the soil of the Cannibal Islands will
grow cross-eyed men and hump backed
women without fertilizers" etc.