A FISH OUT OF WATER 



Bji Bashford J)r(tn 



w^*^^ 



FAITH in our conception of what a fish ought to be is certainly shat- 

 tered when we find one which can Uve for months, possibly for a 

 year, out of water — which breathes by means of gills when in 

 water, but with a lung during the summer drought, inhaling and exhaling 

 air as though it were a land-living animal. Such a queer fish was recently 

 sent by Dr. Joseph A. Clubb to the American Museum of Natural History 

 in an exchange with the Public Museums of Liverpool. It came from the 

 Gambian region of Africa, coiled up in a kind of cocoon, deeply sunken in 

 a large clo<l of earth which months before had been a bit of the bottom 

 of a dried -up stream. 

 When received at the 

 American Museum the 

 cake of earth showed, 

 as a sole sign that any- 

 thing alive was with- 

 in it, a little tunnel-like 

 opening where the fish 

 burrowetl when the 

 earth was still soft, and 

 through which the fish 

 later secured its suppl\' 

 of air for breathing. 



Indeed it is this 

 opening which gives us 

 the clue as to how the 

 dormant fish can best 

 be examined. For we 

 may begin at the edge 

 of the tunnel and chisel 

 the hard earth away, 

 and on reaching the 

 bottom we may, cut- 

 ting with greater care, 



A block of firy eartli (greatly reduced in size] in which is 

 encased a living lungflsh. The funnel like opening for air 

 shows at the upper right hand. This block of earth came 

 from Africa in a box provided with holes to admit air for 

 the Hsh's breathing. Metal grating over the holes guarded 

 the dormant fish against the attacks of shipboard rats 

 and roaches 



The fish alive [greatly reduced in si/,e| ami newly released from its cocoon in the 

 block of earth. Its fins are crumpled : it is covered with slime and is dark, almost black in 

 color. Compare with frontispiece 251 



