WHEN THE FATHER OF WATERS GOES ON A RAMPAGE 



6 t ■> 



been reached, when depressions are often 

 filled quite remote from the main channel. 



Pursuing their natural instincts, the 

 adult fishes at flood time leave the main 

 channel and seek quiet back-waters in 

 which to deposit their eggs. The eggs 

 are laid under conditions that appear to 

 be favorable for their development and 

 for the hatching and growth of the 

 young, and the latter may attain a length 

 of several inches before the freshet be- 

 gins to subside. With the recession of 

 the flood waters, the adults turn their 

 noses in the direction of safety and most 

 of them ultimately reach the main stream. 

 The young, however, fail to react 

 promptly to the falling waters, and a very 

 large proportion of them sooner or later 

 are cut off and become permanently 

 landlocked. 



The temporary pools, ponds, lakes, and 

 canals left by the subsiding flood waters 

 are of various shapes, sizes, and depths. 

 Some of them become dry in a few days ; 

 others may persist for weeks or months, 

 while their water is gradually lost by 

 evaporation and seepage ; others, in 

 smaller number, continue until winter, 

 when they soon become solidly frozen. 



YOUNG FISHES DOOMED TO DIE 



The larger pools that survive the sum- 

 mer are often rich feeding grounds for 

 the young fish, which grow with such 

 amazing rapidity that many of them may 

 attain a length of 8 to 10 inches by early 

 November. 



In any event, the fish contained in the 

 landlocked waters necessarily die. The 

 mortality may ensue quickly, as when a 

 small pool becomes completely dry in a 

 few days, or it may be gradual and long 

 drawn out, as in a pond or lake of some 

 acres area. 



The frightful conditions that prevail 

 as the water becomes reduced and the 

 fishes more and more concentrated can 

 well be imagined. The fishes' suffering 

 from lack of water and air is usually 

 aggravated by starvation, by the daily 

 heating of the water by the sun's rays to 

 a point that is almost intolerable and 

 often fatal, by cannibalism, and by wad- 

 ing birds, snakes, turtles, mammals, and 

 other fish-eating creatures from which 

 there is no escape. The pools that per- 



sist until winter are so shallow that the 

 fishes are killed by smothering, even if 

 the water does not freeze to the bottom. 



how the fishes are rescued 



The work of salvaging food-fishes is 

 simple, direct, and effective. It consists 

 of netting the fishes from their unfavor- 

 able environment and depositing them in 

 the open water of the Mississiopi, and is 

 accomplished by prooerly equipped res- 

 cue parties dispatched to the flooded dis- 

 tricts from conveniently located bases or 

 headquarters. 



A government fish rescue crew con- 

 sists of six to eight men, who emoloy a 

 small launch in going to their field of 

 operations and in returning to their base. 

 The necessary equipment comprises fine- 

 mesh seines of various lengths, small dip- 

 nets, galvanized iron washtubs of one- 

 and-a-half bushels capacity, tin dippers, 

 and a flat-bottom rowboat. 



The seining crews begin their work 

 each season as soon as the floods subside 

 sufficiently to disclose conditions. The 

 active operations, as a rule, begin in July 

 and continue in a given section until the 

 allotted task is accomplished or the 

 waters freeze, usually early in December. 



The size and depth of given waters de- 

 termine whether the men shall set their 

 seines by wading or from a boat. As the 

 net is carefully hauled and bunted, the 

 fish are sorted into tubs, then carried as 

 soon as practicable to the nearest point 

 at which open water may be reached and 

 there liberated. 



The cut-off waters are for the most 

 part in the bottom lands on both banks, 

 usually within a few hundred yards of 

 the river. In some sections, however, 

 where the surface configuration permits 

 a wide lateral dispersal of the flood 

 waters, the temporary ponds that demand 

 attention may be several miles back. It 

 therefore happens that, while under ordi- 

 nary circumstances the seining crew can 

 easily carry the tubs of fish to the place 

 of deposit, sometimes teams and motor 

 trucks are employed. 



Some of the landlocked waters are 

 veritable lakes in which many seine hauls 

 may be required to secure all or most of 

 the fishes ; others are so small that they 

 may be thoroughly fished with a single 



