THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF FISH. 75 



Curiously enough, this art of gentle handling seems 

 to depend more on the muscular strength of the 

 individual than anything else. It is very difficult to 

 induce a small child to handle a small living creature 

 without causing it discomfort, and this appears to be 

 due not so much to the child's natural carelessness as 

 to his or her want of muscle strength, and its natural 

 adjunct, muscle control. To say that an animal 

 requires to be handled " gracefully " would probably 

 be open to misconstruction. The muscular qualifica- 

 tions, however, which secure a " graceful " movement of 

 the hand, are much the same as those which are 

 required for due successful handling of small animals, 

 or of a scalpel. 



Should a fish in the tank show signs of exhaus- 

 tion it is probably due to one of two causes 

 either a rise of temperature, or an exhaustion of the 

 oxygen in the water. A sure sign of the latter is seen 

 when fish swim with their noses at the surface. In 

 either case the first remedy should be the addition of 

 some fresh water, and, if this treatment be ineffectual, 

 the fish should be immediately removed to a larger 

 tank to recover, or put back to where it came from. A 

 photograph of an exhausted fish is not desirable. In 

 desperate cases the writer has more than once resorted, 

 with success, to small doses of brandy. 



