The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries Part 39

"Well," said Colin, as he was leaving the laboratory to take up another piece of work he had been told to do, "I don't want a flood to come, of course, but if there is one, I'd like to have a chance to see how the Bureau handles that sort of fish rescue work."

The reports the next morning were no more encouraging,--the Weather Bureau reporting heavy rain in Montana and the Milk River in flood.

Fortunately the weather was fine in the eastern States, but a flood on the Milk River usually means a Missouri River flood, and that takes in nearly two-fifths of the Mississippi basin. Around the Iowa station the rain still poured heavily. By the end of the week more hopeful reports came from the west. As the southwest had escaped entirely no serious trouble was expected, but in the region near the laboratory the rain was coming down in torrents and the Wapsipinicon and Cedar Rivers were overflowing their banks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLIMBING UP THE WHEEL.

Device used on the lower Mississippi to haul in big nets for the Spoonbills.

_By permission of Dr. Louis Hussakoff._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BIGGEST FRESH-WATER FISH IN AMERICA.

Pulling out the source of domestic caviare, the Spoonbill.

_By permission of Dr. Louis Hussakoff._]

The neighboring stations at Bellevue, Iowa, and North MacGregor, Iowa, were reported to be preparing for collecting black ba.s.s, c.r.a.ppies, sun-fishes, yellow perch, pike, buffalo-fish, and catfish as soon as the water should recede and leave the fish stranded in lakes and pools. One Sunday, Colin took the power-boat up the river and had a chat with the men at Bellevue regarding the nature of the work. He found that the flood dangers were small above the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and when an opportunity arrived to do some fish collection in the overflows, the boy thanked the superintendent of the station, and said he would rather keep to the mussel work. This, a day or two later, came to the notice of Dr. Edelstein.

"I haf observed," his chief said, "that you haf been taking much more interest lately in your work. Why is it?"

"I have been trying to do a little investigating on my own account,"

Colin said confusedly, "and there's a lot of fun in working things out all by yourself."

"Haf you any objegtions to telling me what you haf been gonsidering?"

"Not at all, sir," Colin answered. "I'd be glad to show you, if you'd care to see. I've been trying to find out the cause of the difference in the secretions of the mussels that have very bright pearly sh.e.l.ls and those that are dull. But I haven't got very far along yet."

"Fery good subject," was the reply; "let me see your notebooks."

Colin brought him a number of small notebooks filled with records of experiments that he had been doing in the evenings, and over some of them the gem expert smiled.

"You haf done a great deal of unnecessary work," he said, "work that I gould haf told you had no bearing on the results, but it isn't time wasted at all, for you will haf learned more that way than if I had told you. And you haf two series of eggsperiments that are very useful. If you only had time to make the series gomplete, the information would be of value to the Bureau."

"Would you include them in your report, sir, if I completed the series?"

His chief leaned back in his chair.

"Seriously," he said, "I think your eggsperiments on the garacter of the secretions are very interesting. You don't know as much organic gemistry as you should, but if you will take a few suggestions from me, I think your work would be worth publigation."

"You mean in your article?" asked Colin.

"No," was the answer, "in your own."

"My article! You mean that I should write it up?"

"Why not?"

"But I don't know enough!"

"If we all waited until we thought we knew enough about a subject," the scientist answered, "there never yet would haf been a line written.

Don't gif any opinions, Golin, for they will not be worth much, nor any gonglusions, because you hafn't reached any. But make a simple statement of what was the problem you had, how you went about it, and the results of your eggsperiments so far. Remember, too," he added, "that a negative result is often of just as much value as a positive, for it solves the problem to the eggstent of eliminating that partigular f.a.gtor."

"And you really think I should write it up, Dr. Edelstein?"

"Of gourse."

"But would the Bureau take it?"

"That is for the Gommissioner to say, and he would decide on its merits.

If it is not too long--just two or three pages, perhaps, I feel sure he would aggsept it. If you like I will go over the ma.n.u.script and advise you about it."

"Would you really do that for me?" asked Colin.

"Very gladly," was the reply; "but you will need a series almost twice as large as you haf now in order to make it of any value."

"Indeed I'll complete the series, Dr. Edelstein," Colin said. "I'll work at it every minute of spare time I can get."

From that moment time seemed to Colin all too short--the days appeared to fly. He was up long before breakfast getting out specimens both for himself and his chief and till late in the evening he would sit over his microscope working out the details of his experiments. The expert, who had realized earlier in the summer that Colin was restless, now saw that the reason was that none of the work he had been given to do possessed an individual note, and perceiving--as did every one--the enthusiastic nature of the lad, he helped him in every way possible. Thus it came about that before the day set for the reopening of college, Colin had finished the series of experiments which had been thought necessary, and had sent the ma.n.u.script of his article to Washington. And in the very first batch of letters that he received on his arrival at college was one from the Commissioner accepting his report and promising publication in the Bulletin.

Colin ever afterward declared that this was a great stimulus during his college work. He had done well the first year, but his late training under Dr. Edelstein and the spur of research had taught him how to concentrate upon his studies. He did not neglect the out-of-doors life, however, and he still had the swimming championship to defend, but every minute that he was not actively at play he was hard at work. Idle minutes were scarce. Nor did he fail of his reward. Just before the spring examination he received a letter from the Bureau of Fisheries telling him that his application for the next summer had been accepted and a.s.signing him to duty at Woods Hole, the station where he had long desired to be.

Immediately after the close of the college year, and a few weeks spent at home, Colin betook himself to Washington, where he received the necessary credentials. As still a week intervened before the time of the opening of the laboratory, he spent several days in New York, visiting the American Museum daily and a.s.sisting his friend, Mr.

Collier, with whom he had gone to Bermuda. The sea-garden exhibits were all completed and were among the museum's most popular cases, and the curator was engaged in preparing some exquisite models of the Radiolaria, those magical creatures of the sea, which are so small that they can be seen only with a powerful microscope, but which look like living snow-crystals, although a thousand times more beautiful. Some were already installed in the museum, but a large series was planned.

On his arrival at Woods Hole, Colin found work in the hatchery division of the station almost at an end. Hundreds of millions of cod, pollock, haddock, and flatfish fry had been hatched from eggs and planted in favorable places for their further development, and tens of millions of lobster fry as well. A few of the hatching troughs were in use, but most of them had been emptied and prepared for the work of the biological department of the Bureau, to which the station was given over during the summer months.

Colin found that he was not unknown to the director, who, being especially interested in mollusks, had read the lad's paper on the mussel-sh.e.l.ls. Accordingly he was quite heartily welcomed and set right at work.

"You will take charge of the fish-trap crew, Dare," he was informed, the director's quick, snappy eye taking in the lad. "I suppose you know enough about fish to tell the various species apart?"

"I'm not sure, sir," said the boy, "but I think I know most of the common kinds. That is, theoretically, Mr. Prelatt, through studying them. I have never done any fishing of consequence off the New England coast."

"You can haul the trap at slack water this afternoon," the director said. "I will ask Mr. Wadreds to go with you. He knows every kind of fish that swims and more about each one than three or four of the rest of us put together."

"What will be my duties, sir?" asked Colin. "I don't want to trouble you, but if I am to take charge of the crew I ought to know what I have to do."

"The trap is to be hauled daily," was the reply, "except when the water is very rough. You will be given a list of the needs of the laboratory for experimental purposes, and as far as possible, you will fill those needs. Sometimes you may have to a.s.sist in the collecting trip besides, as for green sea-urchins and the like; or perhaps you may have to draw a seine for silversides and small fish. Sometimes you may be needed to haul some of the lobster pots, because we shall have two men at least doing research work on lobsters. Again, you may have to get mussels for some work that is being done on sh.e.l.lfish for food. There will be two other students working with you in maintaining the supply of specimen material, under the direction of the head collector."

"Very well, Mr. Prelatt," the boy replied, "I'll see that things are kept up as far as possible. Am I to come to you for information as to where to go for special fish and so forth?"

"Mr. Wadreds knows more about that than I do," the director said; "he can usually tell you just where to find anything you're after. You'll soon find it easy, because collecting narrows down to a few species. The M. B. L. boat does collecting, too, and sometimes each party is able to help the other."

"What is the M. B. L., sir?" asked Colin.

"The Marine Biological Laboratory," was the reply, "which owns all the land on the other side of the street, just as we do on this. It is a summer college supported by a number of leading universities, to which graduate students come for courses in biology and marine life. There is some research work done also, and at the present moment Professor Jacques Loeb is doing some wonderful work over there on fish hybridization. We are entirely distinct organizations, one being a summer school and the other being a government marine hatchery with a biological laboratory attached. They have their own boats and we have ours, but we grant them the privilege of using our wharves, and there is a great deal of friendly cooperation between the two."

"You spoke of sea-mussels, sir," suggested Colin.