Evening star., 1932-07-22
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

! If Jones had deliberately been choos-
ing plants for q veritable pond, he
could not have selected those more ap-
propriate for large expanse Of water
The water hyacinth, fioater, he dis
carded month or SO ago, because 1t
was growing over the entire surface OF
the pool. and many of its leaves were
in q yellow condition. This state OF
affairs no doubt was aided by the gold
fish. which kept nibbling at the roots
! The water poppy. which would be a
nice plant for large pool. was just
bit too much OF Q good thing for one
the size Of the Jones water garden.
As for the cat-tail. was It not the
old bulrush Of the Bible, among which
Moses was found? That should give
1t a growing status. indeed, and the
Jones specimen fully lived up to its
reputation.
We see that the small pond had
worked itself out, naturally enough
into a cat-tail and goldfish pool, with
the water lily. which was intended to
be the centerpiece, occupying q minor
position.
The tadpoles long ago had succumbed
and had not been replaced. What
would be the use? At least so thought
Jones, and probably he was right.
| The black snails had departed one
by one, succumbing to causes unknown.
The fish thrived and grew fat on
their diet Of prepared food and angle
worms.
How they loved fishin' worms!
An earthworm was the full equivalen.
Of a 10-course meal to goldfish,
evidently.
The Big One, the Middle Sized One,
/ the Little One, each opened his mouth
! as far as he could, when a segment of
| angle worm was tossed into the pool.
/ Now when the Big One opened his
mouth it seemed as II the entire front
of his head was coming apart.
| Much the same could be said for the
! two other fish, except that the Little
/ One, probably owing to his size. did
not seem quite as mouthlike, as he
made dart at the worm. The advent
of the creeper, very much out Of its
element, spurred the goldfish on to
their quickest darting The speed at
discussed in this column before At
that time we made a guess of 80 miles
an hour, as time goes on We would be
| inclined to increase 1t, rather than
! lower the speed
Goldfish are able to turn squarely
in their tracks. and execute flip across
pool so quickly that the eye cannot
follow them. In other words. one sec
ond they are at one side, the next at
the other. and the watcher has not
been able to say exactly how the change
was made.
Whether the fish smell the worm. or
see 1t. or have some other way Of being
apprised OF its presence, the average
owner of water lily pool will not be
able to say. but OF one thing he is sure
and that is that they do know, and act
accordingly.
Their eyes are surely large enough
to enable them to see all that looms
above their home. but their lack oi
brains probably ceprives them OF any
ability whatsoever at putting two and
two together. even when 1t comes tC
feeding. 1t is true that when they are
fed on a regular schedule they seem
to know when TO come to the surface
but after they are used to their quar-
/ ters they will do this. anyway. even
darting up for q finger poked in the
water at them.
Jones had seen his goldfish repeated
ly rise to the surface and poke their
/ noses in the direction OF the family
cat. sitting on the edge of the pool
: The cat registered great interest. bu.
restrained itself, being a well trained
cat. but the Big One the Midde-S Sized
One and the Little One seemed to re-
gard it as a possible source of food
The Big One stuck its snout above
water and blew a few bubbles play
fully in the direction OF the cat. The
latter stopped watching the arrow OF
red. for the time being, and followed
the trail Of air
The Little One burst the surface
and added quota OF bubbles. But
! the Middle Sized One manifesting at
least grain Of piscatorial sense. went
and hid beneath the too profuse growth
! Of one Of the oxygenating plants.