CANNED FISH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1940, Page 8

CANNED FISH

LONG JOURNEY SURVIVED

Not many fishes have lived to tell the tale of having been across the world in a tin.

Of all the fish stories we have heard the story of the lung-fish sealed up alive in a tin in Nairobi and sent to Chicago, where it was prized out of the tin several months later and found to be still alive, is one of the most remarkable. This African fish, which has lungs with which it breathes air. was placed' in a can filled with wet mud. Thu mud was allowed to dry slowly so that* it became very hard, and as it dried the fish settled down for its summer sleep in a more or less verticle passage it had made for itself in the mud.

The other day, when the tin was opened the fish was found in a wrapper formed by the drying of a shiny secretion over its body, with a small opening only at its mouth.

When this snug covering was removed the fish looked as fresh as though it had just come from the water, and began to wriggle about in the experimenter’s hands, making a barking noise as it expelled the air from its lungs. It was put back into the water and in a few hours was swimming briskly about apparently none the worse for its unique experience! The truth of the story is vouched for by its appearance in the official publican of the American Museum of Natural History.