Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-01-26
QUEER FISHES.
singular Exhibitions of Breathing Habits
and Climbing Propensities.

singular Exhibitions of Breathing Habits
and Climbing Propensities.
Taking first the Ophiocephalus tribe, or
ake-headedn fishes, found in the Indian
region we meet with singular exhibitions OF
breathing habits, writes DIR. Andrew Vii
son, F. R. S. E, F. L. s., in Once Week.
It is known of these fishes that they can
survive long periods Of dryness, living as
they do in the semi-fluid mud Of rivers and
lakes. Often they may be found lying dor
mant beneath the 'hard-baked crusts Of the
bottom Of tank, from which every drop OF
water has disappeared" Now, in these
fishessi is clear breathing must be largely
suspended, and life goes on at very low
pressure, so to speak; but so long as the
mud Is soft enough, these fishes can be
seen to rise TO the surface at intervals to
gulp in air. That is to say, when hard
pressed for water, these fishes have devel-
oped q habit Of using air taken directly
from the atmosphere for the purpose Of
purifying their blood-a function naturally
carried on by their gills. They have con-
verted themselves, for the time being, into
and-animals Nor is this all. These
"snake-headed" fishes Of India, while en-
joying their ordinary life in the water, are
are also seen to gulp down air from the at
mosphere. DR.. Day tells us that this habit
is to be regularly observed in these fishes.
He adds the interesting observation that If
a net be suspended below the surface of the
water of the vessel in which they are con-
tained so as to prevent the fishes from ris-
ing to the top of the water to breathe in the
air, they will actually perish and die by suf-
location. So that Just as ordinary fishes
die suffocated out of the water, these fishes
perish from like cause if they are kept in
the water.
Another and nearly related division Of
fishes includes the climbing perch of India
and it's neighbors In 1877, one Daldorf, in
paper read before the Linnean SocietNof
London, detailed the fact that he had cap
tured climbing perch (or Anabas) while
the fish was climbing a palm-tree growing
near a pond. The fish had attained a
height of five feet above the water, and was
proceeding to higher level still. By aid
of the spines in front of its gill covers, it
held on to the trees bark. 1t then bent its
tail, and inserted into the bark its hinder
tail-spines. Thus fixing the hinder part of
the body as a kind of fulcrum or support,
the fish then released its head, and made
further ascent by Strengthening its body.
In the Malay tongue the fish has been named
the stree climber" and it is known to
walk, or rather to waddle, over the land in
are kept moist in it's land journeys by a pc
culiar arrangement of the bones of the
head. These bones are greatly twisted
and contorted, and serve apparently either
to retain moisture for the gills, or to hold
supply Of air sufficient for the breathing
operations of the fish.
But eXcelling in interest, even the curious
fishes just named, we find the Lepidosiren,
or mud-tish, of the Amazon and Gambia
rivers, and the Ceratodus, or "Barramun-
da," of the rivers of Queensland In most
ordinary fishes, such as the cod, salmon,
herring, etc, an organ called the air-blad-
der, swimming bladder, or sound exists.
The use Of this organ is apparently that of
enabling the fish to rise or to sink in the
water, by releasing or compressing the
gases the "sound" contains. This bladder
varies very much in shape and conforma-
ton, and in some cases it is seen to commu-
nicate with the throat of the fish by means
Of duct or tube. In deep-sea fishes the
gas contained in the bladder is mostly
oxygen, while in freshwater fishes much
nitrogen with little oxygen and carbonic
acid gas are found. These gases appear to
De secreted or Iormeu by the alr-bladder
tself In some ordinary fishes, in which
lense network of blood-vessels exists in
connection with the air-bladder, we may
readily believe that this organ may assist
N purifying the blood
In certain fishes, however, not only does
the air bladder become lung-like in struct-
lre but it also discharges the duties Of
Jung, in that it receives impure or venous
blood from the body and returns it to the
BODY in purified condition. The Ceratodus
If Queensland has thus an air-bladder
which is true lung. 1t rises to the sur
face of the water and fills this lung, then
lescends and remains below water until
ne air it has inhaled has become ex-
lausted. The fish possesses also fully-de-
We loped gllls, and we may hold that these
organs are its natural breathing organs
while it inhabits the water, although it is
equally obvious that the lung-like air-bladder
must constitute its means of breathing, when
from any circumstances the gills are unable
% perform their work. AS DR.. Gunther
ellis US, the Barramunda "can breathe
either by gills or lungs alone, or by both
The Lepidosirens, or "mud fishes" on
he other hand, are more decidedly lung
1reathers than the CeratOdus. For their
lir-bladder is really double lung, purify
ng impure blood, in the absence of water,
n which medium alone their gills can act
efficiently In the dry seasons Of the year
hese mud fishes appear to be dried up
With the mud of the pools or lakes they
nhabit. They coil head and tail together,
md exist thus inside a cavity or receptacle
in the mud, which may communi-
ate with the outer air by an aperture or
channel. These fishes are dug out Of the
mud, and are often sent TO Europe packed,
IS it were, by nature, within their mud in
and existing thus inside veri-
able ball of dry clay, whence they are re-
eased by sleeping the clay in tepid water
n this state it is evident the breathing
must be of strictly atmospheric type
There can be no use for gills in fish while
t is spending part Of its life in dried and
lessicated state.
Hence, the lung-like air-bladder must
perform all the functions Of breathing, the
dlls resuming their duties, doubtless,
when the wet season dissolYes the clay and
when the fish returns 10 its native waters.
We witness in such a case the stages by
which the type Of water life can be, and |
probably has been, modified into the type [
4 land life Anyone who sees frog be- !
,in life as a tadpole, breathing with gi!ls, |
nd ending its existence as an air-breathlng /
rog, may think Of the mud fishes, and note .
low lower life often successfully asplres 1
0 attain higher stage Of existence.
Uncle MsdnI and the Reporter.
They tell in Chicago a story about Uncle I
oseph Medill, the owner Of the Chicago I