Part 40 (2/2)
”There isn't anythin' that swims that's meaner than a 'mad-Tom,' an'
they're frequent in all the rivers o' the middle west an' south A ' look, ”is a ses have their hands all cut up by 'mad-Toms' O' course there are scorpion-fish an'
toad-fishes in tropical waters, an' their poison will cripple a man for a while, but there's no fish that's fatal”
”I thought there were lots of poisonous things in the water,” Colin said, ”jellyfish and other things like that”
”Well,” replied the collector, ”a jellyfish can be tolerable poisonous
The Portuguese h to look at when it floats on the water, with long strea that I ever heard of that killed a man”
”A jellyfish? How?”
”It was all his own fault,” was the reply ”It was down in the Bahamas, off Nassau, as I remember The sea was just alive with jellyfish, an'
this young fellow that I'ood deal an'
once or twice had run into a jellyfish without gettin' stung There's only soht all of them did a little?”
”No, only a few Well, this chap knew enough, I reckon, to keep away froot reckless or didn't think of it Sohed back, tellin' them they were foolish to believe old stories, and to show that he didn't care, in a spirit o' 'dare' he dived plued his distance an' cain' hairs just closed all over on him”
”There are hundreds of thein' filaave one wild scream an' went down When he carasp hih he had suffered an electric shock, an'
before they could get him to shore his body had broken out in a violent rash The doctors couldn't do anythin' for him an' he died three days later”
”Have you ever been stung?”
”I know enough to keep away from a jellyfish,” was the blunt rejoinder; ”but I had a nasty time with a torpedo once”
”The electric ray?” queried Colin ”That fish that looks like a small sea vampire only it hasn't a whip-like tail?”
”That's it,” said the older ster, I was haulin' in a net, wheninto the middle o' the net, and a torpedo landed on the back o' my neck I reckon hebecause I was fair paralyzed for an hour or two You're sure to get one yourself,” he continued, ”because they use torpedoes for research work a good deal, but a shock in the hand or on the arm passes away in a few minutes, so that you don't need to worry about that The electric eels--which are not eels at all, though they look like it--are the worst of all, but since they live only in South American rivers, I suppose they won't bother youas I don't find any in the fish-trap,” said Colin, laughing, as Mr Wadreds nodded and went on his way, ”I won't fish that s lobster-pots as a habit, but if I do I'll coht Woods Hole theplace in which he had ever been Unlike other suor pervaded the little settlement The houses nestled in the wooded low hills behind the town, and though so near the sea, flowers could be arden bore witness
To the southeast, over a spit of land that was little wider than a causeway, the road ran to the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Bureau of Fisheries station, holding their coovernment pier shthouse Service and huge red buoys lay in dozens on it awaiting their hour to warn the tempest-driven mariner of the perils that lay below them
Nearer in, where the pier was severed fro bridge, was a small inclosed inner harbor where lay the launches and boats of the two laboratories Upon the shore itself was a stone-walled tank, set between the Residence building and the Laboratory proper, and therein large fish which had been caught in traps or elsewhere, and which were too big for the indoor tanks, flitted as dark shadoithin the pool Smaller fish were in the Aquarium in the first floor of the laboratory opposite the wide space where stood the serried rows of hatching troughs
Here were ht of the landsman, the puffer, which, when disturbed, rapidly inflates itself, rising to the surface of the water until it becoe athe er reulped-doater and swihteen-spined sculpin and the sea-robin, walking over the bottom on three free rays of each of the pectoral fins Upon the top story of the sah e for fish, that fastens on sharks and beco a free ride, specimens of which were often in the Aquariu sliles to it; the blenny, whose facial expression has caused it to be known as the sarcastic blenny; the graceful sea-horse, ings on seaith a prehensile tail like that of a s instead of the mother, and not the least extraordinary, the three-cornered trunk-fish whose front view is the most unfishlike apparition possible These and hundreds of others Colin learned to know froht that Colin heard of the presence of his friend Mr Collier, orking on the plans for a lass-workers and modelers The boy found it hard to tear himself away from this laboratory and struck up quite a friendshi+p with a japanese colorist on the staff Also, he was fortunate inMr Cavalier, the artist of anireat deal of the picturesque and aesthetic elements of the life which he painted andskill Scores of other workers, writers, and scientists of all kinds had roo workshops of Woods Hole
[Illustration: HATCHERY AND LABORATORY BUILDING, WOODS HOLE
_Courtesy of the U S Bureau of Fisheries_]
[Illustration: RESIDENCE AND FISHERIES BUREAU HEADQUARTERS, WOODS HOLE