FISH LIFE 



WE have all looked down through the clear 

 water of brook or pond and watched the 

 gracefully poised trout or pickerel; but have we 

 ever tried to imagine what the life of one of these 

 aquatic beings is really like? "Water Babies" 

 perhaps gives us the best idea of existence below 

 the water, but if we spend one day each month 

 for a year in trying to imagine ourselves in the 

 place of the fish, we will see that a fish-eye view: 

 of life holds much of interest. 



What a delightful sensation must it be to all 

 but escape the eternal downpull of gravity, to 

 float and turn and rise and fall at will, and all by 

 the least twitch of tail or limb, — ^for fish have 

 limbs, four of them, as truly as has a dog or horse, 

 only instead of fingers or toes there are many deli- 

 cate rays extending through the fin. These four 

 limb-fins are useful chiefly as balancers, while the 

 tail-fin is what sends the fish darting through the 

 water, or turns it to right or left, with incredible 

 swiftness. 



If we were able to examine some inhabitant of 

 the planet Mars our first interest would be to 

 know with what senses they were endowed, and 

 these finny creatures living in their denser medi- 



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