SOME TAME FISH
ONE reason why many of the more gentle and less offensive of the wild
animals of North America, such as the deer, the bear, the fox, and the
squirrel, are so afraid of man, and flee at the first sight or sound of
him or his approach, doubtless is because they have learned, by the
crack of his gun and the snap of his traps, that he is their deadly
enemy.
It is a well-known fact that in many of our large city parks, where
squirrels and wild birds and men, women, and children mingle freely
together, and where shooting or molesting these animals and birds is
prohibited, in time they become very tame, and not infrequently will
come close enough to eat out of one's hand.
One might not suppose that fish, one of the shyest and most elusive
of all living creatures, could be tamed in this way. But Mr. Thornton W.
Burgess, one of America's great lovers of animals and favorite
animal-story writers, tells us that when he was a boy living near Cape
Cod, there was a woman there whose home bordered on a small lake or
pond, and that all the fish and several large eels in her section of the
pond knew her. At certain hours of the day she fed them, and at these
feeding-times they would crowd in around the wharf. So little afraid
were they of this kind-hearted and friendly woman, he says, that they
would permit her to lift them out of the water with her hands.
This is only another illustration of the wonders that may be
accomplished through kindness and kind treatment.
WHERE EELS COME FROM
WHERE eels came from was not definitely known until recently.
That young eels ascended the rivers and streams, and that the older
and larger eels descended the streams and rivers at the breeding season,
was known. But where the little eels came from, and where the big eels
that swam down-stream went to-how far out to sea they went, and where
their breeding-grounds were was not known. But the mystery has finally
been solved. Scientists have searched until they have found out.
Writing on this subject, Thornton W. Burgess, in one of his "Nature
Radio " studies, published in the Washington Sunday Post, says
"Our common eel is a fish of mystery. Its life history is a marvelous
tale.
"It is a curious fact that, according to the scientists who have made
a study of the subject, no human being has ever seen the ripe spawn or
eggs of an eel. No one ever saw an eel ready to spawn. This does not
include the lamper-eel, which, properly speaking, is a lamprey, and is
not an eel at all. It is much lower in the scale of life than the true
eel, which is a true fish.
"And the reason that no human being has ever seen the ripe spawn of
an eel is because eels spawn in salt water in the Sargasso S And the
astonishing thing is that this also the breeding-place of all European
eels; yet American eel has ever been found in Europe an no European eel
has ever been found in America.
" We know that many fish which live in salt": water come up into
fresh water for spawning:,.,, But this is a case where fish spend nearly
their whole lives in fresh water and then go down to ` salt water to
spawn, and make a tremendous journey, at that, after they reach the salt
water. The European eels must travel in the ocean be- . tween 2,000 and
3,000 miles, while our American eels have to travel hundreds of miles,
and it is definitely known that they never return. They breed once and
die. Then, in turn, the tiny eels, called elvers, have that long journey
to make before they can begin to go up the rivers and brooks. The
spawning is supposed to take place in a very great depth of water.
"So you may know this, that no matter where you find an eel-no matter
how far from the coast or how isolated the body of water in which you
find that eel-its birthplace was somewhere in the Sargasso Sea, off the
West Indies.
"Said I not truly that the eel is a fish of mystery, and that its
life story is marvelous?"
