WILD LIFE IN CALIFORNIA 



89 



Boreas or lightning strokes and reach the 

 limits of growth, a majestic representative of 

 organic life, there is still man with his cruel 

 ax and new fangled saws who may terminate 

 its career by felling the proud tree, dismem- 

 bering its limbs and cutting it up into fire- 

 wood or timbers and boards as his needs may 

 require. Escaping from such ignominious 

 end it may live on to old age still bearing the 

 burdens of life, chief of which is the support of 

 parasitical relations, misletoe and mosses that 

 fasten themselves to the old tree and remain 

 a drain upon its resources as long as it lives. 

 Finally no longer being able to resist the at- 

 tacks of its enemies, the inroads upon its 

 vitality are manifested in decay and decrepi- 

 tude and it becomes weak and tottering, like 

 the highest representative of animal life, man, 

 who succeeds in living a score of years beyond 

 the average age allotted to his kind. The end 

 is that which comes to all forms of life of 

 both kingdoms alike, death. 



Other forms of the vegetable kingdom are 

 no less subject to vicissitudes of life, and very 

 many have a greater struggle to maintain 

 their existence, especially that branch of the 

 flora known as annuals, through the lack of 

 rainfall, excessive cold, attacks of insects 

 which devour the roots as well as others that 

 feed on the leaves, stalk and fruit. 



As to life experiences of members of the 

 vegetable kingdom, sufficient has been said to 

 show that those forms of plant life which 

 succeed in maintaining an existence and 

 reaching maturity — those that escape from 

 their enemies, or are not seriously injured 

 in their conflict with them, are objects- of 

 good fortune and at the best their lives are 

 not without conflict, but subject to uncer- 

 tainties, misfortunes and disasters. 



However, to continue the inquiry of the 

 subject we must take up for consideration 

 the life experiences of representatives of the 

 principal branch of the animal kingdom. To 

 this end we will first consider some of the 

 features of the life history of a class that 

 inhabits the waters. Perhaps at first tljought 

 we might look upon fish as being care free. 

 They seem to have no routine of employment, 

 no harvest to gather in providing future food 

 supply, no habitations to create and are, al- 

 most without exception, without family cares 

 and not possessed with the slightest regard for 

 their offspring. Other than the annual per- 

 formance of laying eggs in perpetuating their 

 kind and of securing their daily food, the 

 fish family have little else to do and would 

 appear to have been allotted an ideal exist- 

 ence, according to the way some unthinking 

 persons look upon the purposes of life. But 

 appearances are not to be relied upon in 

 search of truth. The fish have their troubles 

 and struggles in maintaining an existence, 

 more so. perhaps, than many of the other 

 forms of life. 



As in the infantile stage of plant forms, the 

 most critical period in the life of most fish 

 is babyhood. Generally speaking, the parent 

 fish lays thousands of eggs each season, but 

 only a few of them escape the ravenous jaws 

 of other fish and other enemies. The baby 



fish that are hatched from the few eggs that 

 escape such fate, if in inland waters, at once 

 seek the shallow margins or other protecting 

 spots where they begin the struggle of life. 

 As a rule the waters supply an abundance of 

 food while in this stage and their greatest 

 concern is to avoid the numerous forms of 

 life that are seeking their little bodies for 

 food. It is estimated that only an exceedingly 

 small percentage of the fish hatched live to 

 reach the size and age of maturity. It would 

 seem as if every fish were ready to swallow 

 its neighbor size permitting, and which in 

 turn is in constant danger not only of being 

 swallowed by some - larger fish, but being 

 made food of by birds and land animals, in- 

 cluding man. Thus it is, under the constant 

 menace of death, that the majority of the fish 

 kind live out their career. The finny denizens 

 of the great depths of the ocean waters, of 

 course, are practically immune from attacks 

 from others than their own kind. 



If fish have any compensation for the vicis- 

 situdes attending their existence or possess 

 anything analogous to what we call the 

 pleasures of living, it must be in eating, and 

 only this, if we interpret the gratification of 

 insatiable appetites as yielding pleasure. 



In addition to the dangers from inhabiting 

 the same waters with cannibalistic relations, 

 many species of fish have other troubles to 

 contend with, chief of which is the affliction 

 of parasites. A notable instance is observable 

 in Klamath Lake, in Southern Oregon, where 

 the large trout common in its waters have 

 their mouth parts attacked by a worm-like 

 animal, probably a species of leech, which 

 affixes itself to the inner parts of the fish's 

 mouth and sucks the life juices of its host. 

 The big fish does not quietly or tamely sub- 

 mit to the proceeding, for which it is made 

 uncomfortable by the presence of the parasite 

 it comes to the surface, flopping violently as 

 if trying to shake loose this intruder. It com- 

 monly succeeds in ejecting it, throwing it to 

 a distance of" ten or fifteen feet. When near 

 enough the action is discernable in all its de- 

 tails from the land or boat. The observer 

 may be startled by the sudden flopping of a 

 big fish on the surface of the water near by, 

 and if his eyesight is quick and sharp and 

 the fish successful in its efforts to free itself 

 of the obnoxious pest, he will see the unwill- 

 ing flight of the leech; or if he misses that 

 he cannot help seeing the spot where it falls 

 into the water indicated by the circles of tiny 

 wavelets caused by this disturbance. 



Perhaps a more exceptional trouble to which 

 the fish tribe may be subjected is the pollution 

 of the waters which they inhabit. Possibly 

 we can more fully appreciate what this means 

 in its effect on the inhabitants of polluted 

 waters by considering the result to a com- 

 munity of our own kind if the atmosphere in 

 which we live, and which is much the same 

 to us as water is to the fish family, should 

 suddenly and without notice become impreg- 

 nated with sickening or poisonous gases. 



An incident, rather extreme in character, 

 illustrating the result of pollution of waters 

 recently came under my observation while on 



