Robbers Under Water (1950)

[Music] [Music] w [Music] the mysteries of nature are as infinite as they are fascinating thousands of books have been written in an effort to explain these Mysteries and the man who can best explain them is of course our friend with the encyclopedic Mind Mr John Kieran right now Mr Kieran is in his library with Paul Milford his nextdoor neighbor let's listen John I was invited to go fishing for pike somehow or other I always thought it's rather unfair to go after anything smaller than a Marin have you got any ideas on the subject well Paul all I know is that we aren't nearly as cruel to fish as fish are to fish and we don't catch nearly as many fish as fish do well I've never looked at it that way John as a matter of fact that very wise Old Gentleman Benjamin Franklin he turned vegetarian for a while until he finally decided that if fish could eat fish he could eat fish too well I'm not one to disagree with Ben Franklin life underwat is a pretty Savage Affair Paul in fact I think you might call it a fish eat fish existence but you can also call this the most thrilling fish story you ever encountered this is the story of the fish we call the pike p i ke and we start in the springtime these are the spring floods covering the landscape we begin with a full grown Pike in the spring as Tennyson said a livelier iris comes upon on the burnished dove in the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Love well the fish are in on that too the pike which ordinarily goes around all by itself hunting for food is moved by the spirit of spring and starts in to think of Family Matters and they gather together and head for the spawning beds just as the salmon run up the Columbia rivet to spawn by the hundreds of thousands now here are the male and females Scouting Around for a good place for the uh eggs to hatch now they're giving the U fawning bed a going over so to speak now here are the eggs being dropped by the female those eggs are called row r o e and fish eggs are what you eat when you eat Shad R and cavard too caviar is the row or egg of the sturgeon course another difference is that the caviar costs a lot more now it seems that there are more than human beings that are fond of row because here you see the smaller fish of another species dining on the row of the pike that's the first Hazard that the Pikes have in their life cycle now this is the male depositing the Milt Mt that's the male element the spooa that sinks down through the water and fertilizes the [Music] eggs here are some fertilized eggs and they're already growing by fishing and cleavage now these pictures of course are very much magnified that's the young Pike inside the egg and Grandma what big eyes it [Music] has now here are the young Pike just out of the egg and as a matter of fact they're carrying part of the egg with them that swollen part there that's the Yol sack and that's the first food of the young Pike there you can see it's beginning to breathe well you can see spring has come along the foliage is out now and the young fish are growing a little bit and Scouting Around more freely for all the different kind of food on which they live and which they find in the water of course all water is filled with a myriad forms of animal and vegetable life and practically anything that comes to a fish's mouth is food they will eat anything including each other those are uh fleas water fleas of some kind that you see dashing around and of course all this time those young fish are eating and running the risk of being eaten [Music] that's the way it is underwater eat while you can because there's always a chance that you will be eaten yourself it's really a rough life although it looks quiet enough it's later in the season now and you can see that fish has grown and he has a bad eye a wicked eye of course a pike is a a game fish a a predator that uh is really dangerous to others that are any smaller than it is well there's the chap has just grabbed himself a good full meal now you can see the reason why other fishes rather hesitate to come near the pike look at that dental equipment that it make a good back scratcher now here's a big Pike looking around for what he might devour and he might devour anything a little smaller than he is himself there's one has a victim ready for the oven he really has a [Music] mouthful this is a very much magnified picture of the head of the nymph of a dragonfly the form that lives underwater and later climbs above water and develops the wings that we see when it flies around now here are two of these dragonfly nymphs have grabbed a fish and they're feeding on it course they themselves may become food for some larger [Music] fish [Music] it's late in the season now the fall has arrived and the fish is pretty well [Music] grown still has that mean look in fact it's getting meaner all the time he didn't seem hungry at first but I think he's working up an appetite HOH here comes a heron a bird that likes a tasty dish of fish and the Heron has a fish there's one or less Pike in that pond well there's a pike with a lean and hungry look like Yan cus well that other fish takes a hint and moves on now here's a big pip Pike looking hungrily at a smaller Pike they eat one another there's another little family quarrel but that one escaped but the pike has caught another type of [Music] fish this time I think he has bitten an off more than he can chw here comes a crayfish now ordinarily a crayfish wouldn't want to do any business with a pike of that size but this Pike has a bad case of indigestion at the moment and Dr crayfish is coming along to relieve them by eating some of that food that's a stickle bag not a handsome fish here's another Pike looking for a meal and that's a poor perch an inoffensive perch and now it's a meal for the pike life can be cruel underwater now now that fish has a bad eye no question about it I don't think it's a good-natured fish and it sees something a worm a worm on a hook and the pipe Falls for [Music] it well that's the finish of one Pike but there are always more fish in the water than ever came out of it and the life cycle of the pike goes on forever [Music] [Applause] oh