This story may sound rather strange to any person not acquainted 

 with Mr. Ives, but if there be any " doubting Thomases," I would say 

 that Mr. Ives will not only vouch for this story, as being the truth, but he 

 is in a position to prove it beyond a shadow of doubt, as I have seen the 

 lantern myself; and Mr. Ives, if necessary, will make an affidavit that the 

 lantern is now in his possession, this convincing evidence removing every 

 question as to the truthfulness of this story. 



THE MUSICAL BASS. 



The freaks of nature, both in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, 

 including of course the little fishes in the brook, seem to me really marvel- 

 ous, said J. L. Stack, the St. Paul Advertising Agent. For instance, at 

 Dellwood lake in Minnesota, which I have owned for many years past, 

 an incident occurred that has entireh' changed the habits and characteristics 

 of the black bass inhabiting it. About ten years ago my partner and myself 

 were capsized while sailing, and by a singular coincidence each of us lost 

 a fine gold watch. These watches were exactly alike, and a musical 

 attachment playing the air of " A Life on the Ocean Wave," had been 

 placed in the chromometers by special order. The watches were stem 

 winders, and this particular tune was played each hour in the day. 



Of course we both supposed our w^atches were lost beyond recovery, 

 but last season while fishing in the lake, after an absence of several years 

 from that locality, I caught a monster bass, and you can imagine m}- aston- 

 ishment at finding my watch snugly stowed away in the department of the 

 interior. More singular still, it was in perfect order, keeping accurate 

 time, for bv some peculiar movement on the part of the fish, the watch had 

 been kept constantly wound up. I found bv comparing the time with the 

 watch I carried at the hour of catching the fish that it had not varied two sec- 

 onds during all the years it had been carried by the bass. The chain, by 

 the way, the bass carried in a sort of negligee fashion, partly hanging 

 through his gill. 



But the most wonderful part of the whole affair I discovered later, 

 after catching a few more bass in the same locality. It appears that my 

 partner's watch had also been swallowed by a black bass, and in course of 

 time, through the mysteries* of scientific propagation, this musical watch 

 attachment had become hereditar\', and every black bass taken in that lake 

 was found to be his own timekeeper, and occasionally the fish danced the 

 Fisher's Hornpipe to their own music in a most amusing manner. 



