"I-YSSHK AX1) FYSSHEYNGE." 115 



propagate them, can distinguish some of them from others as readily as a farmer 

 can the cows or sheep of the same herd or flock. Fish, however, change their com- 

 plexions, and are liable to become light colored or dark, according to the surround- 

 ings, just as men become pale in the office or house, and tanned, freckled or red- 

 dened in the sun. 



Trout, having no perceptible scales, and a skin of delicate texture, are more 

 sensitive than any other fish. Seth Green boldly declares that "trout can be bred 

 to any color, shape or flavor, by feeding and change of ponds, with as much nicety 

 and certainty as a cattle fancier breeds his animals." 



It is a physical fact that all wild beasts, birds, reptiles, and even insects assim- 

 ilate to the color of the surroundings. 



All fish, like other creatures, have their diseases and their enemies. Most 

 especially are they troubled with parasites and entozoa. Each family of fish has its 

 own particular parasite, and none other. These generally attach themselves to the 

 bodies of the fish behind the gills or fins, so that they cannot be rubbed off, and 

 suck their substance until they die. There are no less than 126 kinds of tremotoda, 

 or "fluke," found in fishes. (See Dr. Cobbold's Synopsis of the Distomidae.) The 

 treads worm and tape worm are the most common entozoa. Two years ago 1 

 fished the river Godbout, on the Lower St. Lawrence, and found them in every 

 trout and salmon taken. They infest the intestines, and I cannot learn that the 

 flesh suffers detriment therefrom or that injurv results from eating it. 



There is a great water beetle which is the especial enemy of the trout. It if 

 about three inches in length, has large, strong wings, long sharp mandibles and 

 sharp, hooked claws. It is equally at home in the air, in the water and on land. 

 It can fly, swim and run. For the poor trout which it has marked for its victim 

 there is no escape. If the fish attempts to flee through the water, it pursues; if 

 it rises to the surface, instantly the bettle rises in the air, and hovering over it like 

 a hawk, pounces on its back and fixes his inexorable claws into its flesh. Then it 

 attacks him with its beak, and so destroys him. No Nemesis was ever so persistent. 



Like the rest of animate creation, fish do not all live or feed alike, or occupy 

 the same localities. There are fish carniverous, vegetarian and insectivorous; fish 

 predatory and fish pastoral ; fish local and fish migratory Fish also adapt themselves 

 to their various requirements of temperature, quality of water, shelter, security and 

 reproduction. The angler who studies their habits, of course, knows where to 

 find them. 



Take the great lakes for example. Where the shores are precipitous and rocky 

 and the water deep no fish will be found, because they can find neither food, shelter 

 nor spawning bees. Knowing this, the fishermen waste no time in useless quest, 

 but follow them to the shoaler water, shelving beaches and sheltered coves, where 

 they sweep them in with seines by myriads. In the winter these bays and coves are 

 covered with ice, and the fish naturally resort there for shelter from storms and 

 for warmth and food. Then the fishermen congregate to the spot by hundreds. 

 Whole villages of huts cover the ice field, and men, women and children are busy 

 day after day catching them with hook and line through holes cut in the ice. The 

 fish are easily captured, for they are desperate for fresh air. The greater part of 

 the oxygen has been exhausted from the long pent-up water, since the lake first 

 froze, and they rush to the holes for atmospheric air. just as half-suffocated persons 

 would do to an open window in an ill-ventilated room. 



Fish live on air, like animals. Their gills are their lungs; just as our warm, 

 red blood is purified and restored in its vital'and arterial qualities by air passing 



