The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-12
SOME CATFISH STORIES.
a Species That Digs Worms With
Their Horns.

Their Horns.
From the Netc York sun.
| HAMMoNDsPoRr. May So.-Is is q little
early for very successful catfshing, but s
fisherman tried his hand as IL the other day
at the inlet Of Lake Keuks, aud. having
captured two or three Of these liberal
nouthsd ash, the fact was developed that
| while fishing foF catfish may net be what
| 10 should be yet the season Tor cat.
fish stories was never better than just at the
| present time. AZ the last meeting of the
Fairohih House Circle the subject Of cat
fab came mp. Landlord Ross said be had
| never caught many catfish. nor any of
inordiuate size, Dat. be remembered lsdd-
ing one once, down near Penn yam, which
! at the time he Thoughts was most remark
able freak Of nature.
Tho fish was as white IS snow" said
| Landlord Ross, land its horns we're only
| just above the skin and as blunt as a ten
penny nail. thought sure had discovered
new species of catfish, and was making
quite fuss over it, when Jim Benton
explained the apparent freak. and made
| out the queer fish to be only commonplace
| affair after all Jim said the catfish
around where l caught that one were in the
| habit of going out OF the lake and lying by
the hour in the fields, basking in the sun,
| and the sun bleached them out lust the
| But said, the sun don't wear their
horns off clear to the butt. How do you
| account for that Jimp
"'Thats plain said Jim. While the cat-
| fish are out in the field they put in their
| time digging fish worms with their horns,
and that wears them of.
THUS was another rare specimen lost to
science" concluded Mr.. Ross, regretfully.
| Packy Griswold, the naturalist of the
| circle, related how he once Melted couple
or young catfish and just for the fun of the
thing fastened them together, side by side,
| by putting a rubber band around them, and
turned them back into the water.
There wasn't much fun got out OF it,
| after all, at least not just then" said
Packy, "for the two fish swan away as
easy as anything and as merry as cricketS.
| Three years afterward l was fishing for
catfish, and I'll have to say that / was
| little bit surprised to haul out what / at
| first thought was double-headed catfish,
| but which l soon discovered was two COM
plete catfish joined together all the way
down. In the middle of the body of each
Of these twins, passing all the way around,
was curious ridge. Now, when l run
| against anything queer I've got to investi-
| gate at once, so went to work immedi-
ately to get TO the bottom Of the mystery
| of these Siamese twin catfish. | dis
sected them and found rubber band that
passed around both of their backbones
| Then remembered the two catfish had
turned loose in their infancy harnessed TO-
| gether by the rubber band, and knew that l
| had caught them again. As they had
| grown the band had cut into their flesh
| until it simply clasped them around their
backbones. The flesh had grown over, thus
| the ridge around the twins More than that,
| when l bound the two fish together they
were young and yielding, and they had
| grown together.
ut was all very interesting to me, but
moro interesting things were to come
After had meditated a while over the
| astounding feats possible TO nature, even
though in seeming defiance of her laws, 1
went TO fishing again. My catch was
another pair Of catfish, twins just like the
others, but not so large, and kept on CATCH
ing twin catfish until l had many score
| offspring of my rubber band catfish, of
| course, only they did not have any rubber
band inside them. 1t was possible for my
| original twin catties to reproduce kind after
themselves but they could hardly be ex-
pscted to reproduce rubber banda But will
| say this: their progeny not only had a
| strong india rubber odor, bnt on trying to
dress one found tito be just as tough and
| springy as gutta peroha. l had to throw
| them all away, all but one. took that one
home to experiment. with. l had pair of
| good rubber boots, but they had sprung a
| leak. l melted that catfish down and
mended the boots to perfection; In fact, the
| catfish india rubber outwore the original
| stuff.
A paIe-faced stranger, who had listened
with rapt attention 60 these expositions of
what can occur In this sun-kissed and vine
| clad region, especially when the Fairchild
House Circle is feeling good, now spoke up
and said:
"There may be more picturesque and
healthful valleys than my own native
| Scrubgrass. My candid opinion is that
| there are. But there Ia not creek nor a
| river nor a lake on the face of the green
earth-includiug also the brick-red earth of
| New Jersey and the whetstoue-blue earth
| of West Virginia that breeds, rears, and
! fosters catfish that can compare in size or
strength physical strength--with the catfish
| The historic Scrubgrass yields to her expeI
| aud patient anglers. In physique the Scrub
| grass catfish may justly be called the John
| L. Sullivan of its kind, except, perhaps, that
| its tendency is more natural toward water.
and that it is mild, tractable, docile and
willing. If such were not their style and
character l would not have the report of
them to make to this scientific body that I
am about to make.
II wish my friend Islander Molefetcher
were known to you, for then you would
have better appreciation of my report.
| He is not large man, but he is big enough
| to be good fisherman. A year ago this
| spring, following the sure but unexoiting
| Scrubgrass style of angling, he stretched
| set line in the creek. Il docs not
matter what elsa he caught but
among bis catch were two representative
Gcrnbgrass catfish. They were well matched,
sound, kind as kittens and weighed eleven
pounds each. The Serubsrass catfish Ia
tenadous beyond It's kind and when my
friend Molsfstcher hauled these two into
| his boat they were still as full OF life and
| yIgor SIS they were before they succumhed
10 temptation and swallowed the bait with
| which Molefetohsr's hook was disguised.
My friend MSlsfetchsr has q small pond
| on his prsraisee, and, for some reason, hav-
| Ing taken high regard for the two catfish
he had captured, he loaded them on his
wagon and hauled them 20 the pond AID
put them 10 IL. The catfish were extremely
| grateful for this kind consideration on the
| part OF my friend Molefstcher. aud showed
| their appreciation Of IL by taking
their meals out Of the hands Of any
member Of the Molefetcher family who
went to the pond to feed them. In
fact, they not only showed their faith in
the family by doing that. but would come
. sI,r