FOREST AND STREAM 
9 
4 
c 
His greenish body, darkly tinged here and 
there, and having the well defined median ine; 
and his spacious mouth bespoke him as being one 
of the specie, the large-mouthed bass ( microp- 
terous salmoides ). But there was aibout him 
something independent; some hint of aristocracy 
easily discernible and perhaps it was a'fter all 
only the well proportioned outlines of his ener¬ 
getic body that would cause in one this singular 
belief. But, nevertheless, he was courageous 
enough, and soon essayed his journey to the up¬ 
per reaches of the lake. Here he met others of 
his kind, and was now of such a respectable size 
as to be free from being set upon. The various 
large-mouthed denizens lay along beside the 
sunken logs, or deadheads, in clans of from six 
to ten; they were now arranging to spawn, and 
were in a spirit of feverish energy; very rest¬ 
less and always moving about. Wisdom kept him¬ 
self well enough away and inspected with care¬ 
ful eye the various domains he entered. On one 
of these days a thrill of fear flashed through 
him. A great shape passed silently by as he lay 
there in the kindly concealment of a log. It was 
an immense shape, a great muscallonge that 
would run in weight wdl over thirty j five 
pounds. Wisdom saw him pass like a sentinel 
upon his way; and knew by the hideous look of 
the menacing eyes that the fish was preying bent. 
Nor were the muscallonge alone among the 
greater preying fishes. There too, as he swam 
along could be seen the great northern pike, even 
more menacing in their appearance; and even 
more treacherous and cannibalistic, for they de¬ 
stroyed and consumed their own kind—in fact 
their own offspring. In such places, in such 
more or less detrimental environments was Wis¬ 
dom to live his life of caution. Here he must 
contend with fish whose hungry lives were fed by 
the smaller creatures of the water; they were 
the fittest by virtue of their greatness, their im¬ 
mense destroying power. 
One day while lying beside a deadhead watch¬ 
ing and resting a strange thing happened. The 
bay where he had ensconced himself was of 
most tranquil proportions. The water was 
sheeted over with a mirrorlike serenity; and no 
wind stirring, not a wave ruffled that expanse. 
There stole into the bay what might have been 
easily known to human eyes as a boat. The 
boat contained fishermen. They were bent upon 
one purpose, and if Wisdom had known perhaps 
he would have been wiser. But he did not. 
All at once, as he lay there, there came a splash 
near at hand. The water cleared and he saw 
glide 'by him a beautifully arrayed creature, of 
blending, merging colors, having all the wonder¬ 
ful hues of the rainbow, but he did not know 
that this was an artificial minnow and that it had 
hooks in abundance upon its sides. He saw only 
the glittering, attractive front spinner revolving; 
and in all fascination knew only one instinctive 
impulse. He would snap it up. He was curious 
—-curious beyond name. So as it began to spin 
away he darted forward, lunged at the side and 
the next moment felt the barb run through his 
lip. He leaped out of the water and fairly 
danced upon his tail such -was his sprightliness, 
winning exclamations of wonder from the fish¬ 
ermen. The hook would not come out. It 
clung to his lip with a tenacity that boded ill; he 
plunged and tore, but insistently he was impelled 
toward the dark hulk on the water. Nearer and 
nearer and suddenly a net encircled him and he 
was lifted from the water gasping and wiggling 
and flopping. Then a hand grasped him lightly 
and he was lifted out of the net. The fisher¬ 
men commented enthusiastically upon him. 
“Husky little creature isn’t he,’’ said one. “In 
a few years more he will be a thing to really 
contend with.” 
“Every bit of that,” responded the other. “You 
note how he fairly seemed to dance on his tail. 
I bet he leaped five distinct times. Let him go 
George—let him go, before he loses his wind.” 
“Out you go then little salmoides, and when 
we visit you again be here to pay us welcome. 
Goodbye—goodbye!” 
Wisdom, with a fluttering intake of his breath 
got his bearings; poised uncertain, hesitatingly; 
then with a glad, wavering tnrill to feel the wat¬ 
ers again, he sped away, and still kept on swim¬ 
ming in exultation at the thought of his re¬ 
gained freedom. The sensation had been an ex¬ 
traordinary one. Here was another thing to com¬ 
bat. By all the laws of instinct and fish obser¬ 
vation the gaudy, glittering creature he had seen 
had been a water parasite of uncomprehended 
gender and origin; but he knew now, somewhere 
in his minute brain, that it had been a lie, a fake, 
a sham, built so to lead him on to destruction. It 
caused him fear, and instinctively he watched day 
after day for other such creatures to appear but 
saw none. His experience was not repeated for 
everything he ate thereafter was first duly in¬ 
spected and painstakingly mouthed before being 
swallowed. 
The animals of the earth and the fishes of the 
water possess, as far as we know, no dis¬ 
tinguishing intelligence such as is the gift of hu¬ 
man-kind ; fishes and animals possess only an in¬ 
stinct, heightened, necessarily if brought in con¬ 
tact with man and civilization, or remains at its 
average level if remote from the neighborhood 
of its great enemy—Man. Possessing not a 
wonderful intelligence the mightiest resource at 
the command of the minor earth beings is in¬ 
stinct, sharpened by constant, often trying, ex¬ 
perience. Some blunder, some perilous happen¬ 
ing, in which the life was nearly lost serves to 
immeasurably stamp itself upon the brain, 
through what agencies, and with what degrees of 
understanding we can only leave to the imagina¬ 
tion. Wisdom had no human intelligence; his 
instinct was of the ordinary; but he was learn¬ 
ing through experience the value of careful study 
of the things that preyed upon him. 
(Continued on page 60.) 
