3i6 I N A G U A 



packed and so numerous were they. These were followed by a 

 scattering of immense amber jacks which may have accounted 

 for the excessive hurry the grunts were in. Some very stout- 

 hearted fishes were breasting the current, but they were not 

 making a very good job of it. Most numerous of this rugged 

 group were the common and vividly colored spot snappers. 

 They moved along in a narrow file, or in congregations of 

 thirty or forty, close to the bottom, taking advantage of every 

 depression or place where the rush of water was moderated 

 even slightly. Their fins vibrated at high speed as they crept 

 along, gaining a few feet, holding their own for a space, then 

 inching forward again. What could have been so important to 

 cause all this expenditure of energy I could not guess, though 

 I rather suspect that the fishes themselves did not know. In 

 many respects they are like sheep and blindly follow the leader. 

 It is even questionable if the leader is fully conscious of its 

 activities, for if by some alarm or other interruption the direc- 

 tion of a schooling mass is changed, the leader relinquishes its 

 place and becomes the led, imitating the motions of the nearest 

 member of the school. There is much that is not understood 

 about the phenomenon of schooling in fish; it has been sug- 

 gested that the occurrence is a form of natural communism 

 organized by a scheming nature as a means of protection. It is 

 a simple task for a marauder to follow and seize a lone individ- 

 ual, but much more difficult to grasp that same individual when 

 it is one of a great mass of darting, scurrying forms. Numbers 

 mean confusion to the enemy, a sort of primitive and defensive 

 "united we stand, divided we fall." It is a curious fact, how- 

 ever, that very few of the big carnivores resort to gregarious 

 living; the greater number of fishes of this type are the preyed 

 upon. However, like all communisms, the individual is sacri- 

 ficed for the purposes of the mob, and we have the spectacle 

 of spot-snappers following their leader in a useless and energy- 



