OCR Text |
Show PISHES IN TltEES MAN FROM ARKANSAS TELLS OF REMARKABLE SIGHT. Break In River Embankment Led to Complete Reversal of Nature's Plans Pardonable Skepticism Displayed Dis-played by a Listener. "Did you ever sco fish hanging from tho limbs of trees?" asked a man from tho St Francis Dnsln. "Well, I have, and they didn't havo wings, cither. They woro Just simply plain old St. Francis river catfish, nnd had nover learned how to do anything but swim and blubber. Hut I found n bunch of them up In a tree ono morning1 Just tho same, and It was a curious sight. Of course, It Is common enough to find Ash In hollow logs, hollow trees and stumps after a Hood, hut thesu members mem-bers were up in tho branches, out In tho open in plain viow whoro they could bo seen. It was during n heavy rise in tho river back In tho early '80s. I was living at tho tlmo somo eighty mll03 up tho river from tho mouth on what Is known n3 Cow Ilnyou Island, in that section of Arkansas, Ar-kansas, so named because, of a fearful cattlo calamity shortly after the war, when tho bayou which surrounds tho tsiand was literally choked wiln tlio bodies of cattle. Opposllo whoro I lived was n sharp curve. In tho river, and u. considerable lip with a rather marked decllno toward tho river's edge. Tho high water hod filled this dip. Trees of a small, bushy variety had grown up thickly in tho dip. During Dur-ing tho overflow a vaBt army of flsb had floated Into tho place, evidently to feed. Ono night a shcrt distance bolow this placo there wa3 a break in tho embankment, which threw tlio full forco of tho river back Into a deep basin a half mllo away. Tho fall would not havo been more rapid If tho bottom bot-tom had dropped out of tho river. Really nt first I thought thero had been a sinking of tho land when 1 ventured out tho noxt morning. Across tho river from whero I lived I beheld a remarkable sight. Tho dip had been emptied by tho sudden break below. Hundreds of fish had been caught napping, nap-ping, as It were. Catfish, measuring all tho way from a fow Inches to a foot nnd a half, could bo seen flouncing flounc-ing and wriggling In tho biihhy tops and forks of tho clumps of trcos which had grown up In tho dip. It wns the most rcmarkablo sight I had ever seen and I would not havo bellovcd It myself my-self It I had not beheld it with my own eyes." "I didn't seo It what do you expect me to do?" asked the skeptic, who had ordered a highball, but tho man from Arkansas nover answered. |