Blind Fishes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 28, 10 July 1902, Page 29

Blind Fishes.

Fishes, said an old fisherman, are especially liable to injury to the eyes. Among the fishes taken in netn there are always some that ha\e .suffered some injury to the e\c, and tho number m some cases would be large The leason for this is \ciy simple. The lishes tra\el in schools, many fishes together, and closrU herded Moving thus they aie likely to jostle and iiib against one another. If they aie frightened, then the danger from this souice is greatly increased. Take, for instance, a school of menhaden chafed by bluefish. J n their fi it;ht and their eagerness to escape they rush off wildly, crowding smashing together, and sometimes actually pushing, in their wild lush, up out of tho water on to the beach Bluefish rush oft in the s.uae wild manner when sharks smash into a school of them, and begin biting and drstio\mg right and left. All lishes aie peculiarly sensiti\o to the motion of the water about them , Ihey feel ihe impulse gi\en by the slightest men eminent of it anywheie near them. They keep within the circle of Ihe movement made by the .school They don't stray away, thrv stay with the crowd, and if the crowd gets anything to eat they get at least some of the fragments.