What the Animals Do and Say by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
page 29 of 43 (67%)
page 29 of 43 (67%)
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"Now I will tell you a story about a pike. We are apt to think fishes
very stupid; that they have no feeling. A gentleman in England, a surgeon and a naturalist, told me of what he had himself seen. A pike had struck its head against a tenter hook on a post in the pond where he was swimming. His agony was so great that he darted backward and forward with the greatest rapidity, then buried his head in the mud, then whirled his tail round and round, and threw himself up into the air to the height of two or three feet, and, at last, he threw himself out of the pond upon the grass. Dr. Warwick placed his hand on the fish, examined the injury, and observed that the hook had entered the skull, wrenching up one side of the bone and depressing the other, and that a small part of the brain had escaped. With a toothpick the doctor restored the bones to their proper places. The patient remained perfectly still during the operation, and after-ward was returned to his native element. He seemed restless for a little while, and then lay quiet. Dr. Warwick then made a sort of cradle in which he placed the poor sufferer, who seemed disposed to lie still on one side." "The next day, very early, Dr. Warwick went to the pond. To his astonishment, he found that the pike knew and remembered him. The fish came to the edge of the pond, placed his jaw upon the toe of the doctor's boot, let himself be taken hold of and caressed, and allowed the wound to be examined. It was much better. When the doctor walked along the side of the pond, the fish followed him. When the doctor returned from his walk, he found his patient watching for him. The pike then swam backward and forward while the doctor remained there. The fish had lost one eye in consequence of the wound from the hook, and, when his blind side was towards the doctor, was always very restless. The poor fellow seemed anxious to |
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