A Walking Fish.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 19, 12 May 1909, Page 55

A Walking Fish.

The climbing pereh is a fish that can walk, or at least progress, over dryland; indeed, it used to be believed able to climb palm trees, but that is not now considered true. It lives in fresh water in the East Indies, and the pools which are its home are liable to dry up. When this happens the fish sets off on a journey by land in seach of another pond, and often has to go a long way before it finds it.

You know, of course, that fish do not breathe in the same way that we do. although they breathe the same kind of air. We take into our lungs the air that is all around us in the atmosphere, that is, atmospheric air. Fish also breathe the air that is around them, but this air is not atmospheric, but in the water, taken up by or dissolved in the water.

Just as we cannot live in water, so the fishes cannot live out of it. They breathe the air in water by means of gills, which are rows and rows of very delicate, thin plates, set side by side, and full of little bloodvessels. Water constantly bathes these gills, and the air in its passes into the bloodvessels and aerates the blood. In our case the bloodvessels in our lungs take up the air, or comparatively so. You see. then, that a fish must die unless its gills are kept moist. - Now, how does the climbing pereh manage? His land journey sometimes lasts as long as six days; why is he not suffocated? The reason is that at the back of his mouth there is an arched hole, in which there is a perfect maze of bones with empty spaces between them. The climbing perch sets out on his travels with all these hollows filled with water, and this keeps his gills always nioist. and so in working condition. He is a little fish, only about six inches long,

and a land journey sounds a terrible undertaking for him; we can only hope that he enjoys the change.—“ Sunday Reading.”