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

with ieweled eyes
.Them's lawyers, sah." said a black visi-
tor one day TO Capt. Denyse of the aqua
rum. Now, the captain, who knows so
much about the fishes of the Atlantic coast
that he knows there is more to learn all
the time, had wondered often why the col
ored fishermen of the tropics called the
gray snapper by that name, and here was
his chance to find out for the visitor was
market fisherman from the West Indian
island of St kits.
Fish Got Wise.
We'll. sah" said the fisherman. down
where we fish, the water Is that clear that
you can see down thirty feet. And now and
then as we fish we can see school of
these hyah lawyers, swimming round and
swimming round. And then we bait hook
and let It down slow, slow. slow. until it's
right amongst en- and the fust know
ives got lawyer. Only then We can't see
| down into the water more, because the
lawyer he make a powerful lot of swirl. So
we hauls and hauls fast as we can, and
at last lands the lawyer in the boat
But, sab, that there lawyer comes out
OF the water there will be heads sticking up
out. of the sea all around, sab, and them
heads is the heads of the other lawyers.
sab. And then. when they go down again
and the water Is quiet. We can look down
and see all them lawyers together on the
bottom. And then you can let down all the
baited hooks you likes, sab. and let them
down easy, easy as you likes, and not one
Of them there fish Will even smell It. Them
lawyers they done and followed the first
fish to see what he had hold Of and find
out whether It was food not, and they
saw that he went out of the water and that
he didn't come back. And you will never
catch another lawyer all day, unless a new
school comes along, and then you can catch
one out of that, and the rest will find out
about II and that settles them. Yes sal
that's why we calls them lawyers, sab
They is the smartest fish they is
Another fish about which the tropical fish
ermen tell great tales when they see them
in the tanks are the nlorays. These deep
sea cells, holding themselves half upright,
cobra fashion. in a corner of their spacious
rock-lined tanks, demonac things, look
ing more like creatures of underworld
than like fish Of the everyday ocean. Sea
serpents,' the visitors always call them,
and that is, indeed, what they are. Green,
ike weathered copper, more than six feet
long and a good two feet in girth, with
puffed threats like the great king cobra
with tiny poison-peoples eyes set almost
on their nostrils, and with fanged beaks
OF jaws that cape as wide as those OF
python. they are utterly unlike any other
fish that sWims.
Those wicked jaws open and shut inces-
sanity, and show their frightening appar-
atus of teeth, all pointing backward sure
to hold prey beyond hope of escape To
complete the trap, they have other curved
fangs set far back on their tongues. Alto
sether, they look so deadly and uncanny
that visitors shrink even though the thick
plate glass Is between them.
Chase Anglers Out Of the Boat.
'Lordy! Lordy!' said one old darby from
Jamaica, when he saw the two. "Lordy.
They's mighty good to eat, sab. and thev's
worth II cents pound down our way any
day. But when we gets one and hauls him
In the boat we always jumps overheard and
lets him have the boat to himself TIL we
gets a chance to welt him dead with a club
Ihem morays will chase a man around in a
boat. and they'll bite his foot or his hand off
and never even saw Howdyp"
IN the tank near these living spirfts OF
eVn is q rock grotto where dwell other
hsh that live in freedom on the same reefs
as they-thlngs as beautiful and innocent
ana gentle as the morays are monstrous-
squlrrel fish, dazzling with a flushing red
that would make the fortune and fame of
the man who could produce such a flame
OF color artificially. Even their wonderful
big eyes are red as fire and in the green
water they shine like rubies Those ewes
are magnifying lenses. Capt. Denyse and
l.. b. Spencer of the aquarium have cur
them out of the dead fish and used them
as magnifying glasses, and say thew they
make human hair look as big as six
thread rope.
AS they swim toward the front of the
tank and seem to look out inquisitively a
curious thing may be seen. Set like a
mortised hinge in their foreheads and ex-
tending from the nose to the top of the
when they cape. Sometimes they gape too
much and then, just as happens OCCASION
ally to man who yawns too much their
Jaws get dislocated and they have to be
fshed out so that the queer mortise hinge
may be unlocked for them
Near them are still other reef-dwelers.
daintily embroidered in baby blue. These
are grunt: and they are so nervous that
sudden fright almost surely makes some
of them faint. They gasp and roll over on
their backs and rarely does grunt SO
frightened recover
Rubbing little hard noses and tiny pursed
mouths with little white rabbits teeth in
cessantly up and down on the glass, swim
other curiosities of the sea-puffers or
swellfish, with little humps all over their
backs and heads where the rough skin lies
in folds over the strong bony frame They
are red and brown, with wonderful eyes
flashing turquoise, as perfect as any speci-
mems of that beautiful stone ever owned
by rajah or shah. Around that splendid
eye is band of flashing gold.
Blows Himself Into a Ball.
But the puffer is notable for more than
the beauty of Its eye. It's white abdomen
is strangely fabby, as If it We're unduly
empty. And so 1t Is 1t is empty, like a
balloon before it is filled. Catch puffer
and hold him In the hand. In a moment
he begins to grunt and grind his teeth The
wrinkled abdomen distends quickly. The
puffer Is pumping in air. All at once he
is wrinkled and fiabby no more, but per-
feet sphere, shining with iridescence, its
outline broken only by his little mouth at
one side and his little bit of a tail at the
other
It is the little fellows way of escaping
his enemies. Blown into a ball, he can float
as lightly as q cork on the top of the Wa
ter.s Few fish can get at him then. So
powerfully does he puff himself up that he
will bounce like veritable ball of rubber
If he is thrown to the surface of the wa
ter
Going thus from tank to tank is like IN
folding page after page of a splendid book
"a living book, few of whose secrets have
been caught in print
Here is an old green turtle, sprawling
In typical reptilan torpor on the tiled bot
tom. 1t has been a pet of the text books
for generations. Everybody knows all
about it. % Captain Denyse points out a
queer cailoused place like enlarged fin
ger nail on the upper part of the fiipper.
when the turtle finds a big gastropod
like the strombos, says he, which are
among the largest moIluscs in the world
he has to work. quick to get 1t before the
creature can withdraw into it's great she'll
At such times the turtle jams that hook of
his into the foot of the mollusc and holds
1t till he can get his beak around it. Then
| H.. l,o II, ND icx