Fish and Drought 429 



its movements, and thU U pretty sure to be the case at the 

 moment when it releases itself from burial. By waiting a 

 little longer I witnessed two or three repetitions of this remark- 

 able act. 



i pool such as that which I had under observation, in 



whirh tlu- water was not more than two or three centimetres 



deep, the liberated fish reaches the surface almost as soon as 



lit- the bottom. In any case it is highly probable that 



would arrive at the surface before it had fully seized 



-it nation, and the nervous impulse had arrived at the 



muscles and started them in their righting and locomotive 



activ 



In water a very little deeper it is probable that the fish 

 Id be able to right itself before floating clear of the cloud 

 of mud produced by its struggles in the act of self-exhumation. 

 In the afternoon I went round the park, and found an 

 extensive pool (m) which had collected in the north canal and 

 occupied its western half. There were great shoals of fi>h, 

 principally perch, darting about, and, in their alarm at being 

 surprised in unusually shallow water, stirring up clouds of 

 mud everywhere. Amongst them was one large pike, quite 

 40 centimetres in length. The water shoaled off to nothing at 

 both ends of the pool, and in the middle it was perhaps 30 

 centimetres deep. The pool was far too large to be watched 

 like tin- smaller one. and I was not able to observe any individual 

 ise from the mud. However, I noticed that, with tin- 

 exception of the largo pike, the tish were all -mall ; 1 estin. 

 them to be not more than 10 to u o ntimetres long. 



M tin- western ' nd <f this pool, lound t: : west 



corner and along the western canal to the bridge (6). at the 

 Rouge, the canal was .piite dry. At the Port* 1\ -.. 



d tank ioi dn< ks < / ). and bev.md it 



the lie bottom of this canal does not 



:-t of the tun- mud \shi<h i- found n th t anal . it 



:v and : was no sign M it 



e. The same class of bottom \\ith absence of hie 



il'-d in ' nal. 



On October j th- w.Mth-T had improved, althoi; 



