Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1895 — Stories About Fishes. [ARTICLE]

Stories About Fishes.

“Yes, I observed many curious tilings about fish when I was on the Indian river.” remarked Colonel Wardwell a few days ago. "I'ish. as a rule, are very shy, and yet they frequently Income so tame that they can almost be picked out of the water, and they seem to know people, just as a cat or a dog does. Some of the sea ‘cats’ became so tame around my place that they would actually eat out of iny haud. I had a board running front tlie house out over the water, and I used frequently to go out on this hoard to dean fish, throwing the cleanings iuto the water. These •cats’ would swim up as fearlessly as could be. and on several occasions they pulled the llsli that I was deanlug out of my hand. The fish evidently knew me. however, because when a stranger went out on the lioard they would not come near him, hut would swim around at a distance, as though they were afraid. "The eel is ordinarily a very shy creature, nud 1 do not remember ever having seen more than two or three in Indian river. I had au oyster bed forty or fifty yards from my house, mid 1 went out there, one day for the purpose of getting u basket of oysters. To my surprise au eel came swimming up to me, aud all the time that 1 was getting the oysters it swam around m.v legs and rubbed against them much us a kitten would. I waded hack to my house, and the eel followed me. I found that I did not have enough oysters, nud so l went back again. The cel was still there and followed me across and hack again. Now, I had never seen the eel before, and never saw it again after that day, and the only way that 1 can account for its peculiar actions is that It was the"companion of either a large flslt, turtle or perhaps u manatee, and that It had become separated from It, and, seeing me in the water, thought 1 was the object for which it was searching. “1 have often lmd much amusement watching the antics of the needle fish. This fish, when at play, will Jump over Slicks, straws or other sntall objects in (lie water, and I have freqnntly had them Jump over the float of m.v fishing line. They did this apparently Just to amuse themselves.”