THE CARP AND THE STICKLEBACK 



and at regular intervals. As it grows, it engenders fresh 

 generations, which will follow its lead, provided circum- 

 stances are favourable, and produce new generations 

 which in turn will grow and propagate. It thus gives 

 a greater intensity to its personal life, and magnifies its 

 scope by passing it on to the many offspring which it 

 produces. The carp's life is made up of many succes- 

 sive episodes, and may truly be described as a well-filled 

 one. 



The day after my capture, when I looked once more 

 upon my old pond and thought over the varied incidents 

 of the other lives lived in its waters, and listened to see 

 if I could hear more of the noises made by large carp 

 in difficulties, I meditated upon this longevity, this 

 faculty of growth, and this power of reproduction. And 

 I leaned over the edge, to see in the depth of the water 

 creatures more minute, more fragile, which had none 

 of these qualities. Their destiny seems so different, so 

 stricken by weakness and lack of capacity. Soon I 

 noticed a few sticklebacks out hunting, and the contrast 

 between their lives and that of the carp became startling, 

 although the same pond holds them all, affords them 

 all a livelihood, and gives them all the same protection. 



The differences are manifest. The carp is large and 

 placid, the stickleback small, slim, turbulent and fidgety. 

 It is a great hunter, always busy pursuing prey smaller 

 than itself, especially the young of other species. On a 

 smaller scale, it carries out within a less extended field 

 of action the habits of the pike among the larger species, 

 or of the shark in the sea. It is very voracious and 

 destroys en masse. In spite of its relative minuteness, 

 it often becomes a scourge to all its neighbours, 

 even the strongest of them, so many of their eggs and 

 their young does it devour. Aggressive, pugnacious, 

 well armed both for attack and defence, it goes through 

 the water like a flash of silver and pounces upon every- 

 thing which seems to it an easy prey. 



I sometimes catch sticklebacks with a well-baited 

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