The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-08
YAK
The wonderful core for Cold
in the Head, Hay Fever and
Catarrh. 1Oc. Sold by drug
gists. w. F. REID,
Agent, Savannah, Ga.

in the Ara bian Nights Entertain
ments." For the old man said that the
Americans would never be able to raise
figs until they caught certain tiny
insect
This sounds almost like a fairy story,
does it not? But it has a simple ex-
PLANTATION, as the explorers soon dis
covered The insect is so formed by
nature that it carries the pollen from
tree to tree and thus fertilizes the buds
so that they will become fruit. And
when these insects had been caught
and carried to America and released in
the California fig orchards, the old
mans saying came true. The fig trees
bore beautiful fruit that year and have
done so ever since.
You did not know. did you, that the
government has tanned huge gray griz-
bly, bears? Well, perhaps the authori-
ties did not think of achieving this
particular result when they estab-
lished the Yellowstone Park, but it
came about so, anyway. Nobody in
the park. which is a great national
reservation, is allowed to shoot or mo-
lest any wild creature, and now the
animals are so confident that they will
not be harmed by man that every
evening large bears come down out of
the woods and congregate near the
reservation. waiting for table scraps.
They know the meal hours as we'll as
the guests do and they betray no fear
at all of the many folk who watch
them. Indeed, it is altogether certain
that the human guests of the hotel
are a good deal more timid about it
than are the furry ones.
And now our government has reach
ed into the deep sea and put it's mark
on the fish. In the Atlantic ocean to-
day. swimming many fathoms deep
from Cape Cod north and south, there
are many thousands of goldfish, each
of which bears on one of it's fins a
shining copper tag. Each tag is num-
bered and stamped in such a way that
it can be identified by the United
States officials.
This seem like an amusing kind of
play, but it has a more serious pur-
pose than that. If all goes well. it is
possible that those tagged Goldfish will
teach the government things that may
end in making Goldfish cheaper for the
whole world. For it is expected that
most of the tagged fish will be caught
again sooner or later, and then, when
the tags are returned to Washington
the fish experts will be able to study
how far the fish have swum and where
they go in various seasons of the year.
Then fishermen will be able to fish for
them with the knowledge thus gained.
OF course, the Goldfish had to be
caught before the tags could be put on
them. That is as plain as the need for
catching your hare before you cook
him. These Goldfish were caught by
the government fishermen and taken
to Woods Hole in Massachusetts,, where
the United tates has a great fisheries
station. There the cod were stripped
of their eggs which were used to prop
agate millions of young cod, and Their
they were released after the tag had
been fixed to the fin of each with a Bit
of copper wire.
A record of each tag was kept by
the government. In order to acquaint
fishermen and fish dealers with the
purposes of the tagging, and to encour-
age the preservation and return OF
the tags, a circular was printed and
distributed in the fishing towns. The
circular contained cut of cod show
ing the position of the tags, and asked
that any person coming into possession
of a cod having such a tag forward
the latter by mail to the United States
Fish Commission, Washington, D. c..
or to the United States Fish Commits
sion station, Woods Hole, Mass. to-
gether with the following information
concerning the fish. The date wher
caught, on what grounds taken, weight
before being dressed, total length
measured from end of nose to end OF
| tail, sex and whether milt or eggs were
ripe, large but not ripe, or immature
The novelty of the scheme excited
unusual interest and the hearty CO.
operation of the fishermen was OBJ
tanned and a very large number OF
tags was recovered.
no IF the goldfish ShnuvT
by the tags, is queer. Some of them
remained for months where they were
dropped overheard and were finally
caught again almost in the same place
where they had been put into the
water. Others must have started of
like steamboats,, for one was caught
within forty-eight hours after his lib
GRAFTON thirty-three miles away. Cod
fish No. $50 travelled 131 miles after he
was released before he was caught
again. But he must have loafed dread
fully. for he required thirteen days to
make the trip. Possibly he stopped to
gossip with mermaid and arouse her
envy by showing her his bright gilt
tering ornament. Goldfish No. 43 was
the LATEST of the lot. He only swan
two miles in thirteen days. The one
that swan the farthest was Goldfish
No. o Sc. He was caught away eff
the southern coast of New Jersey nine
teen days after he was released, and
he had gone $50 miles in that time
But though he went far, you can cal
culate easily that he did not go fast.
Probably all the Goldfish swan so slow
" because they guZzled all along the
way. Goldfish eat and eat and eat until
they are so full of food that they alb
solutely cannot cram anything into
their mouths any more. The writer has
often caught Goldfish that had eaten
so much that they were quite swollen
with food, and some of it would actu-
ally be protruding from their outlets
Yet even then they would bite at the
bait on the hook.
Some of the tagged Goldfish showed
how greedily they must have been
feeding. One fish that weighed only
three pounds eight ounces when he was
liberated weighed seven pounds when
he was caught again, only sixty-four
days afterward. If a boy were to in
crease in weight that way. he would
be far more huge than ten elephants
put together by the time he was a
man.
Another proof of the greediness of
the Goldfish is that very many of she
tagged fish were caught again within a
few days of having been set free.
Fishermen on the banks know how
greedy the Goldfish are. for often they
catch fish whose mouths are torn and
bleeding with fresh cuts made by
hooks from which. they had escaped
evidently only a short while before.
j. w. N.
UP-TO DATE GAMES.