Published Semi-Monthly at the Hew York Aquarium, cor. 35th Street and Broadway. 
VOL. 1. NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 22, 1876. NO. 4. 
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FISH OUT OF WATER. 
The conceit of a “fish out ot water” is suffi¬ 
ciently incongruous to have given to this phrase 
a proverbial significance ; and yet what is incon¬ 
sistent with our ideas of the fitness of things is, 
it appears, not wholly out of nature’s power or 
plan to accomplish. The records of Natural 
History contain numerous references to the An- 
abas scandens or Climbing Perch, and the Aritin- 
narius hispidus or Walking Fish. The former of 
these fish is a native of Asia, and is described as 
being remarkable from its possessing an appa¬ 
ratus of very complicated cells situated above 
the gills. These cells, en¬ 
closed beneath the opercu¬ 
lum or gill cover, are formed 
by convolutions of the bones 
of the throat, and serve to 
retain a certain quantity ot 
water, which aids to keep 
the gills wet when the ani¬ 
mal is exposed to the air, 
and thus these organs are 
able to perform their func¬ 
tions even out of water.— 
Those who, having charge 
of great Aquaria, have to 
effect the transportation of 
fish overland, know tSat ve¬ 
ry many of the more hardy 
varieties may be kept alive 
for some time by simply 
wetting the gills. It appears 
that the apparatus provided 
by nature is designed to 
serve this end, the concealed 
cells being, in fact, sponges 
by which moisture is re¬ 
tained, and from which it 
can be applied at the need¬ 
ed time. That this provis¬ 
ion is not a mere “freak of 
nature,” is proven by the. 
fact that these fish are na¬ 
tives of those countries 
where prolonged droughts often dry up the 
ponds and leave the fish exposed upon dry land ; 
and it is, therefore, that they may survive the 
march in search of water, that these special fea¬ 
tures are added. 
Our young readers, who are doubtless all of 
them subscribers to that most charming and in¬ 
structive of Children’s Magazines, “ The St. 
Nicholas ,” will recognize the accompanying illus^ 
tration as an old friend, and for the benefit of 
our more mature readers we would state that the 
illustration is one taken from actual observation, 
the incident, together with other facts of equal 
interest, being recorded by Mr. Morris, an En¬ 
glish government agent in Trincomalee. “I was 
lately,” he writes, “on duty inspecting the walls 
of a large tank at Nade-cadna, the remaining 
water in which was confined in a small hollow 
in the otherwise dry bed. Whilst there heavy 
rains came on, and as we stood on the high 
ground we observed a pelican on the margin of 
the shallow pool gorging himself. We hurried 
down and found numbers of the fish struggling 
up through the grass in rills formed by the trick¬ 
ling of the rain. There was scarcely water to 
cover them, but nevertheless they made rapid 
progress up the bank, on which our followers 
collected about ten baskets of them at a distance 
of about forty yards from 
the tank. They were for¬ 
cing their way up the knoll, 
and had they not been in¬ 
terrupted, first by the peli¬ 
can and then by ourselves, 
they would in a few mo¬ 
ments have gained the high¬ 
est point and descended on 
the other side into a pool 
which formed another por¬ 
tion of the tank.” 
In another instance the 
same observer saw hundreds 
of these fish diverging in 
every direction from a tank 
they had abandoned, going 
a distance of over a hund¬ 
red and fifty feet, and this 
over ground so rough that 
the actual distance traversed 
must have been half a mile 
or more. 
It is also stated that these 
fish are capable of climbing 
up the rough stems of palm 
trees ; whether this be true 
or not, the fact is to a de¬ 
gree endorsed by the na¬ 
tives of India, in whose 
language the Climbing 
Perch is known as the Pan- 
ONE AGAINST A THOUSAND. 
L da 
