Panz-stricken Fish, 367 
When an exceptionally long continuance of dry 
weather forces all the fish to retire to the few acres of 
water that remain, then these voracious brutes do as 
they please with the other fish, and the roach especially 
suffer. Every two or three minutes the fry may be 
seen leaping into the air in the effort to escape, 
twenty or thirty at a time, and falling with a splash. 
The rush of hundreds and hundreds of roach causes a 
wave upon the surface which shows the course they 
take. This wave never ceases: as soon as it sinks 
here it rises yonder, and so on through the twenty- 
four hours, day and night. 
The miserable fish, flying for their lives, speed 
towards the shallow water, and often, unable to stop 
themselves, are carried by their impetus out on the 
mud and lie there on the land for a few seconds till 
they leap back again. Even the jack will sometimes 
mun himself aground in the eagerness of his pursuit. 
Looking over the pool, the splash of the falling fish’ 
as they descend after the leap into the air may be 
heard in several directions at once, and the glint of 
their silvery sides in the sunshine is at the same time 
visible. At night it is clear the same thing is going 
forward, for the splashing continues, though the wave 
raised by the panic-stricken crowds cannot be distin- 
guished in the darkness. 
It is curious to notice how the solitary disposition 
of the jack shows itself almost as soon as he comes to 
life. While the fry of most other fish swim in shoals, 
