The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1946-03-15

hatch until the waters have been
warmed TO a certain temperature,
and the eggs are as accurate in
reacting to this change asa mer-
curry Thermometer. About the
same time crabs and eels and
other fish that bury themselves
in the mud during the cold and
sterile winter season, dig out
and start foraging around for
breakfast.
Last Sunday we sat on a wharf
in the inlet watching the tenn
ing marine life flow back and
forth in the water beneath the
piles. 1t was quite a show, as good
as any aquarium. The scenes and
the fish and all the proportions
are all in miniature, and you
have to use imagination to APP
preciate it. The sun Sits down
| a few feet through the undisturb-
| ed waters, and there, in a soft
| green band of light, a million
tiny individualities play out a
| drama of life and fate with hard
ly less essential meaning, pain
or beauty than that which marks
the life of man. The observer
has to use imagination, has to
look at 1t from the microscopic
point Of view if he is to see it.
Vast schools of minnows scarce
ly an inch in length come trem-
bling through the green, sunny
water. They swim across one
another, turn upon themselves
in tangles as though they might
not have yet learned coopera-
ton but always they keep slow
ly on the move, as though for
a purpose, and as though they
know what they are doing. And
they do. AS casual and unim-
portant as their drifting and dart
ing seems, it is a fierce, small
struggle against death and ex-
tinction. Only watch them for
a few minutes and the reason
why they must keep moving be-
comes plain.
Suddenly the water boils, and
minnows flip into the air and
the silvery sides of a trout flash
through the school like a thun-
derbolt. | sat watching this lit
tie drama with fascination for a
long time last Sunday. Once or
twice a dead or dying little min
now would struggle on the sur
face after a trout went through.
/ lifted one out and looked at
him. There was not a mark APP
parent to the eye. No teeth had
scraped him, nothing had wound
ed him. Yet he was done for.
Perhaps the tremendous speed
and shock of the trout's body
alone had done him in.
Suddenly a much smaller
school of larger minnows, per-
haps an inch and a half in length,
come speeding across the top of
the teeming spawn. They are
swifter, stronger, more vigorous
and determined. They e to
know exactly where they are
going, and to be in a hurry. They
come over like fighter planes
on a mission. The two formations
never get tangled. To the human
eve there seems to be no differ
ence in species. Or is this only
because all fish in the spawn
stage look alike? Is the differ
ence in these schools perhaps
a difference of age only, a mat
ter of one or two days in hatch
ing time? That is one of the
small mysteries of the show.
Occasionally a small shrimp
comes swimming through the
spawn. a creature separated
from the fish by a million
million years of different evo-
luiionary development - yet
a sea creature too. living
along the same shores and
in ihet same world. A lit
tie minnow. stirred by some
elemental curiosity. separates
from the school and follows
the shrimp a few feet out in
to open wafer. What is this
fhinq?" he probably thinks.
What a strange character"
Suddenly he see he has wan
dered off alone. like Alice fol-
lowing the white rabbit. and
turns in terror and beats it
back to the school. A little
crab. about the size of a nickel.
comes swimming on his way
alum and crabby looking as
old crab. Probably voieing the
timeless pessimism of his kind
that the DANCED minnows are
running things for a self-res-
pecting crab. He swims on his
gloomy way and vanishes into
the deeper water under the
pier.
It's a good show, We had rath-
err spend an hour on a sunny
day watching life on its prima-
tive levels than watching a movie.
And it doesn't cost a dime, not
the tenth, not the hundredth part
of a dollar.