The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1900-05-20
WITH LUNGS.
cRek ruREs THAT LIVE ON
LAND OR IN WATER.

,u That Lives Hurled Cn-
ene ptxer Bed During the Dry
ss-India's Climbing Perch and
rnIane Traveller.
Every one knows tnat most nshes
IN a different manner from
plsA tho greater number of animals
VA .hot they get the oxygen necessary
~ o,- life from the water and not |
tOf 'a .,r from the atmosphere. Water
enee.s certain amount of oxygen, |
assu oils of fishes take this out of |
fnu Tor as our lungs take it from
mixed air we breathe. The gins
~ ~ bundles of fine blood vessels, COW
I'D by delicate membrane that per-
a.u oyvgen TO pass through 1t to the
pi go long as it is moist, but usual
p"OI son fish is taken out of water
M dry. and suffocation follows.
ue Ellis are very thin and may be
Or injured by slight violence. Mud,
"a sawdust or any of the many sim
- impurities in water may lacerate
VA ,.ri,ate them, so nature has put i'll
Ito combs. just in front of them
.Lo,n such foreign matters out of
roter before reaching the real gills.
" 6lters are called gill rakers"
"a oct as do the gratings put over
Anu n hold back trash that might
ss,'o,- them up. but the cutters graf
- cot clogged sometimes, and so do
.I rill rakers. When this happens,
ssb must die. and ii is well known
~. tbe sawdust in cur streams has
hoen M a chief factor in the destruction
~ our fresh water fishes
D., all fishes are not dependent on
fao,r gills. Some of them, like our
oommon carp and goldfish, come to
~ surface now and then to take in
s-ofts Of air. and eels can travel over
land around dams or other obstruc-
sors These efforts are trivial COM
aored with those of some fishes found
Il IN other parts of the world.
Those are tie lung fishes, or dipnoi
.s natnra!fsts call them, and the ac
oounts of them seem to border on the
marvellous. IN one group of these ami
% uoIs the '.SwiubIadder" is a kind o1
I'M lung instead of a mere float, as it is il
most fishes. and in some strange fishe:
IN India there is 4 hollow space in tbs
stur that acts as a lung, the walls o
q having clusters of blood vessels
+ about it. just as the vesicles of ou
b uncs have. These fishes can bur.
themselves deep in the mud when tn
dry season comes on and live through
II till tie rains fill the rivers again.
fish in the Gambia river makes
cocoon of mucus and mud, in which
mi has been brought from Senegambia t
Iondon. where the cocoon was gentl
81 washed off and the fish found to b
living. Tie naturalist Natterer di:
covered a similar fish in the Amazon
but this one. the lepidosiren of sc
pnce is one Of the rarest specimen
In museums
In the United States there is fisl
W the bowin. that can be drowned h
stretching net below the surface {
the water so that it cannot get to air
DR.. Hector. the government geologi
Of New Zealand, reported finding son
Il fish about 80 inches long among Il
n roots of trees at a depth of four fe
I'LL in stiff clay. The place where the
we're found was some 81 feet abo'
the Hokitika river, where there ha
been a backwater during a time
food. The mud fishes are common
New Zealand. and the early settle
were surprised to dig up fish wi
their potatoes. as farmers on Long
land are said to be in doubt wheth
their spades will unearth potatoes
clans.
The most famous of the lung fish
Is the climbing perch of India that h
often been found several feet up t
mangroves. These animals migra
overland when their own streams f
and are captured in great numbers
the natives. to whom they are gre
delieacies Ceylou has several speci
Of them. The island is dotted oy
with bogs of thick, chocolate color
mud, covered by a sod of reeds a
grasses. and this mud teens with Fl:
The Cingalese clear off a space a
wait till the fish come up to fill til
ar bladder when they catch them
strong dip nets
Sir John Bowring says that so
lung fishes in Siam go as much
three miles from water and that Il
have been seen tapping along a du'
road,
The lung fishes constitute a wond
iul ard interesting group of amin
and show the wide range throu
which nature can adapt creatures
meir Surroundings. Biology is full
such instances, but few are more ST.
ng than hs.-Washington Star.
Remem her the One at Home,