The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1900-05-10
QUEER FISH WITH LUNGS.
Species Is the Climbing
Perch of India.

breathe in a different manner from
that of the greater number of animals.
and that they get the oxygen neces-
sary for their life from the water, and
not directly from the atmosphere.
Water dissolyes certain amount Of
oxygen, and the gills of fishes take this
out of the water as our lungs take it
from the mixed air we breathe The
gills are buntles of fine blood vessels,
covered by a delicate membrane, that
permits oxygen to pass through it to
the blood 50 long as it is moist, but
usually when FISH is taken out of wa
ter the gills dry and sutfocation fol-
lows.
The gills are very thin, and may be
torn or injured by Slight violence.
Mud, sand, sawdust or any of the many
similar impurities in water may
lacerate or irritate them, SIGNATURE has
put filters, like combs, just in front OF
them to strain such foreign matters
out Of the water before reaching the
real gills, These filters are called
"gill rakers," and act as do the graf
AhBo PNU O'CA BubtSA0 W mum puCh
trash that might block them up; but
the gutter gratings get clogged some
times, and so do the gill l'rakers. When
this happens the fish must die, and it
is well kncwn that the sawdlist thrown
into our streams has been chief fac
tor in the destruction OF, our. fresh
water fishes.
But all fishes are not dependent on
their gills. Some of them, like our
common carp and goldfish, come to the
surface now and then to take in
draughts of air, and eels can travel
overland around dams or other OBJ
structions. These efforts are trivial |
compared with those of some fishes |
found in other parts OF the world.
These are the lung fishes, or dipnoi
as naturalists call them, and the ac-
counts of them seem to border on the
marvellous. In one group of these ami
mails the "swim-bladder" is kind of
lung, instead of a mere float as it isin
most fishes, and in some strange fishes
in India there isfa hollow space In the
skull that acts as a lung, the walls Of
it having clusters of blood vessels
about it, just as the vesicles of our
lungs have. These fishes can bury
themselves deep in the mud when the
dry season comes on and live through
it till the rains fill the rivers again. A
fish in the Gambia river makes CO.
coon of mucus and mud, in which it has
been brought from Senegambia to
London, where the cocoon was gently
washed off and the fish found to be
living. The naturalist Natterer, dis
covered similar fish in the Amazon,
but this one, the Lepidosiren Of science,
is one Of the rarest specimens in
In the United States therp
is a fish, the bowfin, that can be
drowned by stretching net below the
surface of the water so that it cannot
get to air.
DR.. Hector, the government geologist t
Of New Zealand, reported finding some u
fish about five and half inches long r
among the roots of trees at depth of i
four feet in stiff clay. Theplace where
they were found was some 81 feet
nbOFC tAC 1lOhltfhd MHeIt lucTG
had been back water during n time \
If food. The mud fishes are common I
IN New Zealand, and the early settlers |,
we're surprised to dig up fish with their :,
potatoes, as farmers on Long Island
are said to be in doubt whether their
spades will unearth potatoes or CLAIMS. 0
The most famous Of the lung fishes is 4
he climbing perch of India, that has !
,ften been found several feet up the
These animals migrate =
'verland when their own streams fail
nd are captured in great numbers BY Il
he natives, to whom tLey IRE great
elicacies. Ceylon has several species n
E them. The island Is dc tied over :
18th bogs of thick, chocolate colored ?
lud, covered by a sod OF reeds and Il
rasses, and this mud teens with fish. d.
he Cingalese clear off a space and Iii
Tait till the fish come up to fill their D;
ir bladders. when they catch them in
trong dipnets.
Sir John Powring says that some y
ing fishes in Siam 90 as much as three II
lilies from water and that they have at
cen seen tapping along dusty road. trt
The lung fishes constitute a wonder IN
Il and interesting group of animals. IN
nd show the wide range through
hich nature can adapt creatures to
neir surroundings. Biology is full Of NJ
ich instances, but few are more strils- an
z than this.-Washingto Star. a,
=
Save One Per Cent OF Eggs. Sc
It is estimated that fish batcbey;a.