The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1900-08-04
EOWDOFISH GET THERE?
MYSTERY OF THEIR PRESENCE m
LAND.LocKED POOLS.

HE scientists nave tailed in |
every effort they have made |
to cause the spontaneous gen.
Grafton of life, writes George |
Cary EgglestOn, in the New York !
World. They therefore contend that
+bcre is no such thing as spontaneous
generation. In this they overlook the
fact that nature does many things of
her own accord which the scientists
ere unable TO persuade her TO do at
their bidding. Moreover. as the scien-
fists deny the theory of direct divine
creation and assert that all living
forms have been evolved from DrOto-
Dlasm, and protoplasm itself from inor-
.-anic matter, their denial of the pos
SiJility of spontaneous generation is
Illogical. For if living forms were not
brought into being by special acts OF
creation there must be somewhere
hack of them history of spontaneous
generation. Why should not that be
repeated now under favorable condi-
tons?
The scientists say that wherever
there is a body of water with fish IN
il and with no stream or other con-
nection with other bodies Of water
somebody must have put the fish
there. This take the Liberty of doubt
ing, and my doubts are founded upon
the lifelong observation as an enthusi-
astic fisherman. Let ne cite some
facts.
In my boyhood 1 knew a "brick
pond" oct of which We boys used to
catch thousands of "Goggle-eyes"
every summer. How did they get
there? The pond was merely a pit
out of which clay had been taken for
matchmaking. Rain water had filed
the depression and made a pond of il.
There was 20 other water near, and
certainly more anywhere with which
the pond was connected in any way.
How then did the ''Soggle-eyes' get
into it? Nobody in that region 1T that
lime had ever heard of stocking Wa
tiers with fish, and had anybody been
minded to do anything of the kind he
would very certainly have selected
some better fish than worthless little
''gOggle-eyeS" for seed.
Again: In 1862 was encamped for
many months near PocOtaligO, S. e.,
on the line OF the Charleston and So
vannah Railroad. There were many
borrow pits along the line-shallOw
depressiOns made by the removal of
Earth for use in building the railroad.
Rain water had filed them, and there
was certainly no conneCuon of any
kind between them or between any
other water nd them. Yet every one
of them within miles of MY camp was
so full OF fish that l vell-nigh. fed my
mess by angling in them. have
caught pike there that weighed sew
eral pounds apiece. 1t is simply pre-
posterous to suppose that anybody
v,nt along through those woodlands
putting fish into all the borrow pits"
How then did they get there unless
10y natural or sp"--"neOus genera
ton?
Some people explain the matter cy
saving that fish rain down" but that
is not an explanation TO satisfy an edu-
Gated intelligence. \ wiseacre not
long ago undertook to answer lily
question by suggesting that tish-hawks
fying over with female nsh in their
ldlOUS lllClI
squeezed out the rOeS and some OF the
eggs might have fallen into the little
ponds. But apart from the exceedln;
remoteness of the chance that tnls
could have happened in the case OF
all these ponds, there is the addltlonai
fact that the eggs of ordinary hshes
sre not fruitful ut the time or their
deposition in water. but are fecundateo
-afterward. One might fill pond WITH
the shawn of any of our common
fishes. and If there were no male t1sn
Of the same species in the ponu nO'
one single egg would ever hatch.
Still again: If the presence OF nsl
in land-locked waters means thai
somebody put the fish there, why u
II that the species most universally
found in such waters is about the mos
worthless OF all species, whether Lo'
food or for sporting purposes! Whc
that cared enough for fish or nshlns
to 90 stocking ponds would think o.
selecting the "pumpkin-seed" (sun
fish for that purpose? Yet that nsh u
present in annoying abundance II
every pond that 1 ever saw Wner'
there are any fish at all. An entnusi
asst or a practical fish culturist mign
put bass, trout, perch or pickere! lnt'
an artificial pond, But he wouid ceE
tainly never think of adding the worn
less sunfish, with its destructive haOl
of feeding fat upon the spawn OF Oet
ter varieties. Still less would he nav
selected that as the only fish TO oreeo
vet it is often the only species IN
pond. Neither is it conceivable ina
any man with a thimbleful OF brain
would put rock bass into water Z
that species is not only worthless 10
food, but positively repulsive in taso
and odor.
The facts cited might easily be mutt
piled from my own experience an
the observation of others whe nav
fshed in many waters will bear tnel
witness. They seem to me 10 sno'