Tir PROFESSOR S“SPORY: 
F. I. SHERMAN. 
I am a scientist, and you will pardon me 
if I stick closer to facts than is generally 
considered a fisherman’s habit. 
I -have spent many years studying the 
animal kingdom, and, I hope, I have made 
some discoveries of value. 
One of the most interesting branches of 
this study has been observing the effect 
upon animals produced by entire change 
of environment—as a lion, transferred 
from the jungles of Africa to the cage of 
a traveling menagerie—a horse from the 
broad prairies of the West to the thills of 
a cart, and man from his primitive, nude 
state to silk tile and patent leather shoes. 
The following experiment was first sug- 
gested to me while resting on the bank of 
a trout stream one day last summer. 
I had just fixed myself comfortably un- 
der a shade tree and lighted a cigar, when 
I noticed a small green frog sitting on the 
bank blinking at the blue vault and appar- 
ently enjoying himself as. thoroughly on 
land as in water. 
Noting his perfect composure out of his 
native element, my mind began reasoning 
as follows: 
“The frog is amphibious. He can live 
comfortably either on land or in water. 
The frog has no scales; other amphibious 
animals are without scales; query, May 
not this very absence of scales be the rea- 
son they are amphibious?” 
The trout, like the frog, has no scales. 
Why may not the trout, if properly trained, 
be capable of living out of water? You 
follow my reasoning? 
It was a new thought. The attempt, so 
far as I knew, had never been made. 
determined to try the experiment. 
Fortune favored me in my pursuit of 
knowledge. The last fish I caught that 
evening was a trout about 15 inches long. 
I placed him carefully in my creel, and 
when I got home he was still alive. I at 
once put him in a large stone watering- 
trough I have in my back yard. 
He was a little wobbly at first, and spent 
part of the time on his head, and part on 
his tail, and several times turned the white 
side up; but he gradually recovered his 
presence of mind, and settled quietly to 
_the bottom, to study this sudden change. 
The next morning he was himself again, 
and seemed to adapt himself to his new 
home and a few red worms, and to expe- 
rience no inconvenience from the change. 
I began my experiment at once by turn- 
ing off the pipe that supplied the trough. 
Then I removed a few bucketfuls of water. 
The next day I remeved one bucketful 
of water. The following day another, and 
so on until the trout’s back was barely 
covered. 
I left him in this condition several days, 
and he seemed perfectly happy. 
I then lowered the water until his back 
was uncovered. Still he took his daily ra- 
tions of red worms. 
I kept lowering it gradually until his up- 
per lip was out of water. This did not af- 
fect him, but I noticed he had developed 
a new faculty. In going after a worm he 
set his fins against the bottom of the 
trough and pushed himself along in this 
way. My experiment was becoming in- 
teresting. 
Day by day I reduced the water, a little 
at a time, until finally I removed the last 
drop, and still my trout lived. To my 
surprise he developed wonderful locomo- 
tive powers out of his two fins. He could 
move quite rapidly from one end of the 
trough to the other. 
After a few days I removed him to the 
kitchen, where we had a smooth oilcloth 
covering the floor. 
This ‘exactly suited him, and he very 
quickly grew familiar with his surround- 
ings and soon became a household pet. 
Dan,.we called him; and it was surpris- 
ing how quickly he developed his intel- 
lectual powers. 
He~-soon knew all the children, and 
would follow them around the house, using 
his fins to propel himself, as the seal does 
on land. 
Dan soon got to know the sound of the 
dinner-bell, andthe instant he heard it, off 
he would hobble to the table, and, leaning 
over on one fin, he would flop the other 
until his dinner was set before him, when 
he would settle down perfectly satisfied, 
and fall to with a relish. 
I was naturally elated over my experi- 
ment, and anticipated a great amount of 
445 
future pleasure in exhibiting Dan to my 
incredulous friends. But a most unfortu- 
nate accident put an end to my experi- 
ment and Dan’s life at the same time. 
Dan had been an inmate of my house 
3 months. I was preparing to go down te 
my office one morning, when there came 
up a sudden shower, which delayed me a 
half hour. When the rain ceased I ven- 
tured out, and found the gutter in front of 
my house running full of water. 
In order to reach my carriage I had to 
cross this gutter on a narrow plank. Un- 
fortunately I didn’t notice that Dan was 
following me. 
Poor fellow! In trying to crawl across 
the plank he slipped off, fell into the 
water, and—was drowned. 
