58 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



thronged by what seemed to be busy couriers; and 

 when the news finally spread oi falling ivater^ one night 

 would suffice to make the lake, before so thronged with 

 finny life, deserted; and a few nights only, perhaps, would 

 pass, when the narrow bar would intrude itself between 

 the inland lake and the river, that supplied it with 

 water. 



Such was the fish's wisdom, seen and felt, where 

 man, with his learning and his nicely-wrought mechan- 

 isms, would watch in vain the air, the clouds, and see 

 " no signs " of falling water.* 



Among arrow-fishermen there are technicalities, an 

 understanding of which will give a more ready idea of 

 the sport. The surfaces of these inland lakes are un- 

 ruffled by the winds or storms ; the heats of the sun 

 seem to rest upon them ; they are constantly sending 

 into the upper regions, warm mists. Their surfaces, 



* It may not be uninteresting to naturalists to be informed, 

 that these fish run into the inland lakes to spawn, and they do 

 it of course with the rise of the water. These overflows are 

 annual. A few years since the season was very singular, and 

 there were three distinct rises and falls of water, and at each 

 rise the fish followed the water inland, and spawned: a remark- 

 able example Avhere the usual order of nature was reversed in 

 one instance, and yet continuing blindly consistent in another. 

 It is also very remarkable that the young fish, native of the 

 lakes, are as interested to mark the indications of falling water 

 as those that come into them ; and in a long series of years of 

 observation, but one fall was ever known before the fish had 

 left the lakes. 



