The suburban citizen., 1900-07-28
HOW D0FISH GET THERE?
MYSTERY OF THEIR PRESENCE IN
LAND.LCcKED POOLS.

efallOn OF IKE WElleS HeOlBe
Cary Eggleston, in the New York
World. They therefore contend that
there 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
are unable to persuade her to do at
their bidding Moreover, as the scien-
lists deny the theory Of direct divine
creation and assert that all living
forms have been evolved from proto-
plasm, and protoplasm itself from inor-
ganic matter, their denial of the pos
si1ility of spontaneous generation Is
illogical. For if living forms were not
brought into being by special acts Of
creation there must be somewhere
back of them a history of spontaneous
generation. Why should not that be
repeated now under favorable condi-
tions?
The scientists say that wherever
there is body Of water with fish in
it and with no stream or other con-
nection with other bodies Of water
somebody must have put the fish
there. This l take the Liberty Of doubt
ing, and my doubts are founded upon
the lifelong observation as an enthusi-
astic fisherman. Let me cite some
facts
In my boyhood I knew a "brick
pond out OF which we boys used to
catch thousands of "goggle-eyes"
every summer. How did they get
there? The pond was merely pit
out Of which clay had been taken for
brickmaking. Rain water had filed
the depression and made a pond of it.
There was no other water nedr, and
certainly none anywhere with which
the pond was connected in any way.
How then did the "goggle-eyes" get
into it? Nobody in that region at that
time had ever heard Of stocking wa
ters 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 l was encamped for
many months near Pocotaligo, S. g.,
on the line Of the Charleston and Sa-
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 md 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 |
vent along through those woodlands |
putting fish into all the borrow pits"
How then did they get there unless
by natural or spo~+1neous genera
ton?
Some people explain the matter by
saying that fish rain down." but that
is not an explanation to satisfy an edu-
Gated intelligence. A wiseacre not
long ago undertook to answer my
question by suggesting that fsh-hawks
flying over with female nsh in their
talons or their beaks might have
squeezed out the roes and some Of the
eggs might have fallen into the little
ponds. But apart from the exceeding
remoteness Of the chance that this
could have happened in the case of
all these ponds, there is the additional
fact that the eggs of ordinary fishes
are not fruitful at the time of their
deposition in water, but are fecundated
afterward. One might fill a pond with
the spawn Of any Of our common
fishes, and If there were no male fish
of the same species in the pond not
one single egg would ever hatch.
Still again: If the presence of fish {
in land-locked waters means that !
somebody put the fish there, why Is {
it that the species most universally |
found in such waters is about the most l
worthless Of all species, whether for t
food or for sporting purposes? Who t
that cared enough for fish or fishing v
to go stocking ponds would think of f
selecting the pumpkin -seed' (sun- f
fish for that purpose? Yet that fish is a
present in annoying abundance in a
every pond that l ever saw where S
there are any fish at ALL An enthusi- I
asst or practical fish culturist might
put bass, trout, perch or pickerei into
an artificial pond. But he would GER
tGinly never think of adding the worh-
less sunfsh, with it's destructive habit y
OF feeding fat upon the spawn Of bet n
ter varieties. Still less would he have ,
selected that as the only fish to breed, Il
yet it is often the only species in a u u
pond. Neither is it conceivable that Y
any man with a thlmbleful Of brains -
would put rock bass into water, as i
that species is not only worthless for Il
food, but positively repulsive in taste g
and odor. u
The facts cited might easily be multi
piled from my own experience, and
the observation Of others who have nj
hshed IN many waters will bear them 9,
witness. They seem to me to show .,
concluslyely that fish do somehow get -
INTO waters into which they could not ol
have migrated from other waters, and y,