The Red Cloud chief., 1893-10-20
THE FOUNDER.
How the Under Eye Works Its WAY to ths
Top Side.

How the Unde Eye Works It's WAY to the
Top Side.
Some Of you may have heard the say
ing ''as fiat as a founder" and have not
stopped TO think. What ! wish to tell
you Is why this fish is fiat and what
happens because IL Is fiat.
II you have ever seen one in market
or elsewhere. you know that the upper
and under parts of its body are Of diff
ferent colors, and that It's two eyes are,
strangely enough, both on the same
side Of the head. II you were to see
n in the water you would notice that
II swan not upright, as other fish swim,
but lying over on n side, with its eyes
on top.
Now all these things-the fatness,
the two eyes together, the twisted
mouth. the different colored sides, the
peculiar swimming-come from the
fact that the founder Is not and never
has been ar overbrave fish. We can not
blame the poor creatures much, be-
caus they have no way TO de-
fend themselves as swordfsh and
some others have. Their neigh.
bors enjoy eating them. They
know that they are weak, and so they
took, ages ago, to hidinng at the bot
tom of the water. This has been done
80 long that now they have actua lily
lost the power to come to the surface.
Other fish rise and sink by means Of an
air bladder. Those of our friends that
used theirs and rose were pounced upon
and eaten. The poor scared ones that
hid Mt the bottom and saved their lives
had no need of the rising apparatus,
and now, rs is always the case when an
organ is not used, they have lost it.
But when the founder took to his
hiding place at the bottom he did not
settle himself Mt all comfortably, ac-
cording to our ideas of fish comfort.
Instead Of al upright position, with
the two sides equally up, he chose for
some reason to lie over entirely on
side up. This position accounts for
the differently colored sides. That on
which he lay was protected always from
the sunlight and lost it's color. The
upper has come to be the color Of the
bottom on which he lives, be that
color what it may. That IL should be
so Is not so strange as IL seems. A
bright founder shining on a dark bot
tom Is easily seen by it's enemies, and
seized and eaten. The same would be
true of a dark fish in a bright coral
house. Those who lived to have fami-
lies of their own were those whose
home. Only the dullest color vas
transmitted, and so. the world over,
members of this family IRE the color OF
sand, or mud, or gravel, or shell, or
coral, according to the place of their
abode. Some are even knotted and
rough in a way that makes them won
dcrfully like their. home. We find,
for the same reason, arctic animals
white like snow and desert insects the
color of sand.
Another result of the fatness of this
f1attish family to which the founde,
belongs is that its eyes are both on the
top Of its head. We can best see how
they have got together, and how othe,
changes have taken place, by noticing
the growth Of q young founder. Ii
the very beginning Of its existence tn.
baby fish Is a clear, transparent littl,
thing. It's two eyes are where well
regulated eyes should be, on opposite
sides of the head, and it swims vertical
/. ly in the water, as do other fish. Blu
in n few days the influence of a lonl
|, line of founder ancestry is felt. lie
too. takes TO lying on one side, gener
|, orally, but not always, the left. TIL,
exposed skin darkens. In this position
Tho yteyy NJ tho uuler ava is snmoyyhc
:. limited, and it squints upward towart
a larger one. 1t begins to move; i
turns the corner and comes to the top
There it takes n stand. The moutl
j.. twists upward and the young fish swim
along sidcwise on the bottom.-Har
! pcr's Young People.