The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1895-07-11

head, which, he said, if as scarce as the
brook trout, would bring as good prices.
Mr.. Green was a close student of the
ways of fishes and once told the writer
that he had no doubt that some species
knew how to communicate ideas-in
other words, to talk after their own fash
ion, though they cannot make sounds.
He held that bullheads were far more
intelligent in the care of their young
than most fish. He said that after mat
ing the female Of this species digs hole
in the side of the bank or in the bottom
of the pond and then excavates a sort Of
cave about 2 feet across and 6 or Z inches
deep. After the spawn is deposited the
water is famed and the dirt so kept
from the spawn. The eggs hatch about
five days after they are laid. When the
fry are Matched out, they lie around a
few days until they are able to follow
the mother. She then cares for them and
teaches them to feed, just as hen
teaches her chicks, and it takes three or
four weeks for the young bullheads to
learn to provide for themselves. AS soon
as they have learned this lesson the
parent fish drives the young from her.
Mr. Green said that the black bass was
the only other fish that he knew of
which so protected it's young, and he de-
clared that, although the story was in
deed fish story, it was true one.
Writing of bullheads, by the way, re-
minds me of bullhead story heard
once that might do we'll to wind this
article up with 1t does not come from
so unimpeachable source, however, as
Seth Green. 1t originated in Mayville,
Wis. Near that place there was, in
1860, lake which is now Horizon
marsh. The winter of that year was
very cold, and the ice froze two feet
thick and solid, without single hole
or break through which the fish in the
the fish-all bullheads-in order not to
be smothered to death, swan up the
channel of the Rock river to the Kekos-
kee dam, where there was an air hole.
So numerous were the fish that they
filled the channel completely, and when
the air hole was reached those in the
lead were crowded out upon the ice in
great numbers by those in the rear.
"Great numbers" is faint way of stat
ing the facts as related to my informant.
There was perfect geyser of bullheads,
and it lasted for day. There were so
many of them that they sold for 25 cents
wagon load, and the people of the
vicinity lived on the fish for weeks and
had to use several hundred loads for
manure.
You may doubt this much of the
story, and therefore will not relate the
remainder. If you ever go to Mayville
and ask about the bullheads Of Kekoskee
and the expressman, named Brush, who
fed his hogs and his horses on them for
two months, you will get the whole
yarn, and then you will see that have
only begun it. CHARLES APPLEBEE.
The Peruvians' Sacred Number.
The Peruvians cared nothing for any
of the supposed mystic properties of Ell
Their three, five or seven. To them the
four was sacred, and around it they en-
twined the main features of all their re-
ligious ceremonies and queer beliefs
They believed the earth to be a square
divided into four parts and suspended
from the heavens by four cords-one at
each of the four corners. All of their
cities were quartered by four principal
streets running from square in the CEN
ter. They held four annual feasts in
honor of the moon, the ''silver sister of
the sum-"
To them eternity was to be divided
into four periods of time, each composed
OF four times 1900 years, and at the end
of each of these cycles the sun is to be
blotted out of existence. They PRAYED
to the four winds, or to eye gods that
dwell at the four corners of the earth"
10 them the rains came from four enor-
nous heavenly turtles that vomited
dampness, and the four winds from the
lungs OF the four gigantic caryatides
which stand at the four cardinal points
OF paradise. The above are but a small
portion of the fours alluded to in the
legends Of tho Incas.~ -