Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-02

| Mammals and birds may be unhappy in
| captivity. Fish aren't.
| In all the New York aquarium there is
only one fish who does not seem to be en-
| joying life immensely, and that is an old
| channel bass about as big as ten-months
| old baby. He has baby face too. and he
| spends all his days and probably his nights
| pressing hts nose fiat against the pane of
plate glass. In TACT, it is more than that.
! 1t Is convex. His face has a dent In It
| like the bruise that a tin kettle would ac
quire if hit sharply with hammer.
| Only now and then does his busy tail re-
| lax the everlasting wiggle that keeps him
| humping bow on against the glass. Then
| he turns his side to the beholder and at
once what seemed but loggy. heavy
| shouldered fish CLEANS in delicate bronze
and emerald and looks the bully fighter
| that he Is. for the channel bass is noble
| game fish, and If the American sportsmen
| as a class knew about him thousands would
| cast for him eagerly every season from
the New Jersey sands to the Florida
| beaches.
| This channel bass has Travelled farther
| than many human beings. Quite apart from
| his unknown Voyaging In his native ocean.
| he has travelled from New York to ST
| Louis, where he pressed his nose fiat against
| the glass that separated him from the ex-
position crowd
| Travelling seems to agree with fish pretty
| we'll There are some fine old hook-jawed
| black monsters of trout that have been
not only to st Louis, but also to Buffalo
| and Atlanta and back again to New York
| and they are as wicked, hungry and hand
| some as ever
Never Saw a Mountain Stream.
These big trout lie In their tank just as
| they would in their native pool-that is, If
they had native pool. which they haven't,
| for they were Matched in wooden trough
and brought up by hand.
They never saw a mountain stream, and
| the only sound like waterfall that ever
| reached their ears was the sound of the
silVery cascades singing merrily out of
rubber house. But 10 one would suspect 1t
| from their appearance or actions. They
| are toothed and jawed like the fiercest old
spotted pirate Of the wild waters. Let a
| minnow be dropped into the tank from
above and the human eye is indeed a
| quick one that can mark the trout flash to
| the surface for 1t. Most eyes are conscious
| only of a sudden swirl of the water That
one of the big trout has moved at all IS
more OF an impression than anything else,
for before the swirl is ended the big fish
lies in his old place again, motioness as a
Sculptured thing, with stir Of neither fin
nor gill to hint at that lightning discharge
of pent energy.
Then the slow eye looks to the surface
for the minnow There is none
The big pike and the salmon and bass are
like the trout in that they act as II they
were In their pools. Rarely or never co
they act as II they were trying to look
through the glass at the special tors, as the
moonnsh, groupers, angel fish and others
do.
These latter do what spectators naturally
expect They swim up and down behind
eheir glass and stare at the people with
apparently the same curiosity with which
the people stare at them. And really when
a man looks fmpartialy at the staring fish
and at the staring people 1t is borne In { n
him suddenly with little shock that thers
IS hardly any difference between them.
Can't See the Visitors.
Actually the fish are not staring at the
people at all. They can't see beyond their
glass panes any more than human being
IN a brightly lighted room can see through
"lldoW INTO pitch-black night outside
But they look as if they were gazing with
all their hearts and minds: some with iuno-
cent curiosity, like the big-eyed squirrel
fish; some with iLl-concealed amusement.
like the parrot fish and the buffers, and
some, like the gray snappers, with evident
hauteur
Ihat Is the first thing to astonish a per
son IN a Dig aquarium. He enters EXPECT
ing TO md all the fish looking Just like
Hsh. Inc general picture of a fish that
every one has in mind is that of q google
eyed, thick-lipped. stupid thing. lacKJnp
expression as totally as does pumpkin ME
BUT the very first visit to an aquarium
dlspelS that idea forever, and dispels IT with
start similar to that which must have
been felt by human beings when they first
saw monkeys; for the fishes have faces as
various hneament and expression as hu-
man faces. and dozens of species do indeed
look far more human than does any monkey
that ever lived.
Nobody. can look at the tropical angel
fish, for instance, without realizing at once
tnat the water Great ha b,,,,
lneaments but human expression. 1t is a
wise little face with arching eyebrows and
stub nose like that of a little old gnome
There can't be much thought of "fshy
eyes after man has looked at the angel
fish and they have looked at him. Their
eyes seem almost sagacious and critical
especially when seen from above, as they
rise to the surface to inspect proffered food ;
Among the pixies, which class includes
all of the snaky assassins from the little
banded pickerel to the great king of the
pixies, the muscallonge, there are as many
varieties of expression as there are fish and
their habit of keeping themselves suspended
In Underwater for hours at a time without
moving even a gtll-raker gives the OBJ
server plenty of opportunity to make char
acter studies.
Resembles Noted Politician.
There is one huge muscallonge In a tank
who looks SO weirdly like certain nation
ally famous politician that 1t is startling
There is the gaunt face, the alert eye that
appears to see nothing and yet scans every
inch within sight necessarily. the cold,
cruel mouth with the set smile and the
| undershot jaw. Eight visitors in ten who
ever have seen picture of the man in por-
trait or caricature recognize it in the fish
instantly.
That big musca1longe is not the only
pike that looks like famous Americans
One of the pickerel land the greediest
of the lott needs only cigar in the cor
ner of his firm mouth and high hat set
well back on his smooth robber forehead
to be the living. breathing image of a great
capitalist who helped engineer the Northern
Pacific corner and since then has played
a little pckerel game in the way of gorg-
| ing some life insurance graft
They act like human beings too There
are fish in aquariums, particularly the in
noeent angel fish and the red-eyed, small.
mouth black bass, that are so quarrelsome.
that they have to be kept in solitary con-
| finement. Every attempt to give them com
pany results in the death or Gripping of
| the company. Then there are other Ash SO
/ humble and submissive that they will let
| the rest walk Cor rather swim all over
| them.
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