Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-08-20
Daily kennebec Journal.
AUGUSTA LOCALS.
WANTED TO SEE A ..aELLsENoER."
Maine People Learn from New Yorker u
Their Own State.

where do they grow their hellbenders
here in Name asked New York
drummer who vas leaning up against
the counter in the Hotel North, the other
day.
This is n prohibition State and we
don't have anything of that kind here,
replied the clerk, who confessed that ne
was not an expert on piscatorial matters
THAT is the way with you Maine peo-
pie. | mean fish, said the drummer who
then proceeded to tell what he meant as
follows:
The New York Aquarium has recently
had an accession to it's fish colony in a
gift from the United States fish hatchery
in Green lake. The gift consists of 10
brook trout, three golden trout and two
land-locked salmon. There was quite a
little fiutter of excitement among the
colony when the new guests were in
stalled for it was discovered that one of
the salmon was a freak fish. Each little
tank became a pool of seething bubbles,
for freak fish is something out of the
ordinary and the attendants were quite
worried at the numerous efforts to jump
up and see the curiosity. The wire COW
erings on each tank were fastened care
fully and kept in place all day. else curl
oeity would have killed many fish
which today still lives.
The subject of all this fishy interest is
n tiny albino salmon, and an albino sal
mon is Just as much curiosity or frea
10 the fish world as could be a two-head-
ed cat or duck-legged chicken. The al
bino salmon Tipped about in the waters
Of its new home, oblivious Of the excite
rnent of it's neighbors, and made friends
at once with the albino catfish in whose
house it lives. 1t did not seem to mind
the change in its habitat from Green
lake to the aquarium. for the albino is a
hatchery fish and has never known the
delights of life of freedom This little
freak fish is a faded-out specimen Of an
ordinary land-locked salmon, ana looks
like a spectre of the real thing. 1t
weighs two or three ounces ana is hard
" four and half inches long, so except
for the fact that it is a freak, there l.
nothing remarkable about il. All tho
salmon have olive-green bodies, the lower
part cleaning silvery, and decided black
streaks mark the salmon as salmon.
A near neighbor of the albino salmon is
4 fish of low character. Rather, this
neighbor is not fish at all. but a sloth-
full, dirty looking amphibian. a first cous-
in to frogs and mud-puppies and other
batrachians 1t has the name of Hell
bender" but in the encyclopaedia is
known as the cryptobranchus Allie
ghenienses. Its habits are disgraceful.
The hellbender lies dormant for weeks,
burrowing in the soft, muddy bottom of
its tank. ana then some day it will rise
6 /, ,r,, dot
horrid little head. drink in the air until
it is intoxicated. ana then, for all the
world like man on a spree. double UP
in the queerest way ana drift lazily To
the bottom Of the tank again. ana there
hibernate on the air it has imbibed for
days to come That is why the cryptic
branchus has its name
THE hellbender is anything but an at
tractive-looking fish. 1t is perhaps fiji
teen or eighteen inches long. has a loose
dirty-gray skin which looks much like
a pair Of the fashionable gray suede
gloves grown dirty. It's head is fiat and
shaped like bon-bOn spoon. There are
loose ruffles of skin On each side Of the
body which the hellbcnder employs as
parachute after he has been up to the
top on one Of his sprces. When he starts
down again he distends these skin ruffei
with fluted edges and can float to the
bottom at his leisure. He has four feet,
two in front with four tiny little pink
toes, and two behind with five pink toes.
The cryptobranchus dimes often on KILL
fish, worms and mOllusks, and is a fierce
little thing with a yOracous appetite.
That is the kind of a fish | want to see
j am interested in fish and want to see
the hatcheries' continued the travelling
man.
Every one passed out and the drummer
wondered how many people in Maine are
ignorant of all the possibilities in their
State.