Fish Study 



149 



11. FISH STUDY 



"It retnains yet unresolved whether the happiness of a man in this world doth consist 

 more in contemplation or action. Concerning which two opinions I shall forebear to 

 add a third by declaring my own, and rest myself contented in telling you that both of 

 these meet together, and do most properly belong to the most honest, ingenious, quiet and 

 harmless art of angling. And first I tell you what some have observed, and I have 

 found to be a real truth, that the very sitting by the riverside is not only the quietest and 

 the fittest place for contemplation, but will invite an angler to it." — Isaak Walton. 



.EAR, human, old Isaak Walton discovered that nature- 

 study, fishing, and philosophy were akin and as inevitably 

 related as the three angles of a triangle. And yet it is 

 surprising how little the fish have been used as subjects 

 for nature lessons. Every brook and pond is a treasure 

 to the teacher who will find what there is in it and who 

 knows what may be gotten out of it. 

 Luckily there are some very good books on fishes which will assist 

 materially in making the fish lessons interesting: Fishes, by David Starr 

 Jordan, is a magnificent popular work in two volumes; American Food 

 and Game Fishes, by Jordan and Evermann, is one of the volumes of the 

 valuable Nature Library. While for supplementary reading the follow- 

 ing will prove instructive and entertaining: The Story of the Fishes, 

 Baskett; Fish Stories, by Holder and Jordan; "The Story of a Salmon," 

 in Science Sketches, by Jordan; Neighbors with Wings and Fins, Johon- 

 not; Half Hours with Fishes, Reptiles and Birds, Holder. 



Almost any of the fishes found in brook or pond may be kept in an 

 aquarium for a few days of observation in the schoolroom. A water pail 

 or bucket does very well if there is no glass aquarium. The water should 

 be changed every day and at least once a day it should be aerated by 

 dipping it up and pouring it back from some distance above. The prac- 

 tice should be established, once for all, of putting these finny prisoners 

 back into the brook after they have been studied. 



THE GOLDFISH 



Teacher's Story 



^NCE upon a time, if stories are true, there lived 

 a king called Midas, whose touch turned 

 everything to gold. Whenever I see gold- 

 fish, I wonder if, perhaps, King Midas 

 were not a Chinese and if he perchance 

 did not handle some of the little fish in 

 Orient streams. But common man has 

 learned a magic as wonderful as that of King 

 Midas, although it does not act so im- 

 mediately, for it is through his agency in 

 selecting and breeding that we have gained these exquisite fish for our 

 aquaria. In the streams of China the goldfish, which were the ancestors 

 of these effulgent creatures, wore safe green colors like the shiners in 

 our brooks; and if any goldfish escape from our fountains and run wild, 

 their progeny return to their native olive-green color. There are many 



