The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1900-07-04
FISHES WITH LUNGS.
QUEER CREATURES THAT LIVE ON
LAND OR IN WATER.

der the River bed DurinfA,,bc Dry
season-India's Climbing Pcrch nnd
Slams Inland Traveller.
Every one knows that most fishes
breathe in different manner from
that of the greater number of animals
and that they get the oxygen necessary
for their life from the water and not
directly from the atmosphere. Water
dssolyes IA certain amount of oxygen.
md the gills of fishes take this out OF
the water as our lungs take 1t from
the mixed air we breathe. The gills
are bundles OF line blood vessels, COW
cred by delicate membrane that per-
mits oxygen 10 pass through II to the
blood so long as II is moist, but usual
ly when "a fish is taken out of water
the gills dry, and suffocation follows.
The glls are very thin and may he
torn or injured by slight violence Mud.
sand. sawdust OF any of the many sim
liar impurities in water may lacerate
or irritate them. so nature has put iii.
tiers, 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 gin rakers"
and act as do the graungs put over
cutters 10 hold back trash that might
block them up. but the cutters graf
ings get clogged sometimes, and so do
the gill rakers. When this happens,
the fish must die. and II Is well known
that the sawdust in our streams has
been "A chief factor 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 10
the surface now aud then to take in
drafts of air and cells can travel over
land around dams or other obstruc-
tons. These efforts are trivial COM
pared with those of some fishes found
in other parts of the world.
These are the lung fishes, or dlpnoi,
as natnralists call them. and the ac-
counts of them seem TO border on the
marvellous. In one group OF these ami
mails the "swimbladder" is kind OF
lung instead of n mere float, as II is In
most fishes, and In some strange fishes
In India there Is a hollow space In the
skull that acts as IA lung. the walls OF
IL having clusters Of blood vessels
about IT, just as the yesicles OF our
lungs have. These fishes can bury
themselves deep in the mud when the
dry season comes on and live through
1t till the rains I'LL the rivers again.
\ fish In the Gambia river makes a
cocoon of mucus aud mud. In which 1t
has been brought from Senegambla TO
London. where the cocoon was gently
washed off and the fish found TO be
living The naturalist Natterer dis
covered n similar fish in the Amazon,
but this one. the lcpidosren OF sci
ence. is one OF the rarest specimens
In museums.
In the United States there Is fish,
the bowfin, tina. can be drowned by
stretching n net below the surface OF
the water SO that 1t cannot get TO air.
DR.. Hector, the government geologist
of New Zealand. reported finding some
fish about 81 inches long among the
roots of trees at depth of four feet
In stiff clay. The place where they
were found was some 81 feet above
the Hokitika river, where there bad
been n backwater during time OF
Hood The mud fishes are common In
New Zealand. aud the early settlers
were surprised to dig up fish with
their potatoes, as farmers on Long Is
land are said TO be In doubt whether
their spades viii unearth potatoes or
clans.
The most famous OF the lung fishes
Is the climbing perch of India that has
often been found several feet up the
mangroyes. These animals migrate
overland when their own streams fail
and are captured In great numbers by
the natives. to whom they are great
deleacies. Ceylon has several species
of them. The island is dotted over
with boys OF thick, chocolate colored
mud, covered by sod of reeds aud
grasses. and this mud teens with fish.
| The Cingalese clear Off II space ana
walt till the fish come up to fill their
/ air bladder, when they catch them In
strong dip nets.
Sir John Bowring says that some
! lung fishes In Siam go as much as
three miles from water and that they
have been seen tapping along a dusty
road.
The lung fishes constitute n wonder
full and interesting group OF animals
and show the wide range through
which nature can adapt creatures to
their surroundings, Biology Is fun OF
such Instances, but few are more strik-
Ing than Washington Star