428 Fish and Drought 



I did not examine them, and I arrived at the conclusion that 

 a little steady wet weather would soon fill the ditch up again. 



On October i the weather was still very bad, but between 

 the showers I took a walk along the margin of the ornamental 

 water (h) on the west side of the chateau (k) , which is connected 

 with the south canal of the moat. A pool of water had collected 

 here, and there was quite a quantity of small fish, not more 

 than 10 or 12 centimetres in length, swimming about in the 

 water, which did little more than cover its muddy bottom to a 

 depth of at the most four or five centimetres, in which these 

 small fish were able to swim. I noticed that the water was 

 turbid and that the mud was everywhere being stirred up by 

 the fish. They were darting hither and thither, being dis- 

 turbed by my presence on the bank, and, whenever they altered 

 their course, they contrived to raise a dense cloud of mud, in 

 which they were able for a short time to conceal themselves 

 from view. 



Two days before these fish were invisible, and now they 

 had reappeared in an isolated shallow pool, which also had no 

 existence two days before. It was evident that all these fish had 

 been covered by the dry mud, and must have released themselves 

 the moment they thought there was enough water for them to swim 

 in. There was not by any means too much water for the 

 crowd that was moving about in it. I was fascinated by what 

 I saw, especially as it seemed to be in every way likely that 

 the process of release was still going on. But the release of a 

 buried fish would be sure to be accompanied by a cloud of mud, 

 which could not be easily distinguished from that produced by 

 a fish already in freedom and swimming about. Still, con- 

 sidering the shallowness of the water and the very favourable 

 position for following everything that went on in it which I 

 occupied on the bank, I was convinced that there would be 

 some noticeable difference between the two classes of cloud, 

 and I was not mistaken. After waiting and watching for some 

 time, I saw a mud-cloud rise in the very shallow water, bringing a 

 fish with it to the surface belly upwards. It lost no time in righting 

 itself and swimming away with the others. A living fish can 

 adopt this attitude only when it has not got full control over 



