Прыгоды з жыцця прыроды
Adventures from the life of nature
Вячаслаў Грамыка
Для сярэдняга школьнага ўзросту
Выдавец: Беларусь
Памер: 263с.
Мінск 2003
The lower part of the body became completely white, as if whitewashed. So although the little cat-fish was still smaller than his bigger congeners, nevertheless, he already had the appearance of a grown-up one, and was proud of it. In this guise, he lay down to spend his second winter. In the same way
as the last winter, which passed for him without any special adventures, he buried himself into the silt where he spent winter and woke up when he sensed the freshness of the thawed and rainy water. As before, he switched over to an active way of life.
The little cat-fish didn't try to seek out a place in his father's entourage, as in the previous year, for he knew that his father now had other responsibilities and so he set off on his Spring travels independently.
Alongside other cat-fish swam trustingly and shoals of roach and crucian gave way to him. It was obvious that if the little cat-fish was not feared of, they at least treated him with respect.
There was plenty of food now and he didn't have to wait and hunt from an ambush. The spring floods brought about many dying fish, frogs and even small land animals, such as mice. And the little cat-fish didn't shrink from this food. He cleaned the river like a janitor.
Once the little cat-fish greedily threw himself at a dead crucian not looking at the barely visible thread, which lead to somewhere above. He thought that it was some sort of a water plant.
With his sharp teeth he bit into the crucian, but all that happened was that scales fell off from it. He seized the crucian again. Then he swallowed the catch somewhat more and clenched his jaws more firmly. Then the body of the cat-fish was pierced with pain. Frightened, he felt that something sharp and hard has caught onto his upper lip. The little cat-fish wriggled strongly but his lip hurt even more. The poor fellow got very scared. He rushed in different directions, trying to free himself from this dangerous object. The sharply bent metal hook cut its way through his upper lip.
Then the metal hook tugged the little cat-fish upwards. He resisted even more strongly, trying to go backwards, but it was all in vain. The thread grew more and more taut. His mates bustled around the unfortunate cat-fish but no one could help him with anything at all.
Usually the older cat-fish teach their young how to keep safe from falling for the bait of fishermen, and if you get caught, then how to get out of a scrape. But this river tributary was situated
in such a dense forest that the farmers of the local villages seemed to forget about its existence. Therefore, the fish in this locality were never troubled by anyone. The absence of danger leads to the loss of vigilance. And that's what just happened... Not expecting any danger, old cat-fish forgot about the necessity to teach the young ones. Unexpectedly and accidentally, some tourists arrived to the remote tributary and cast their fishhooks into it.
So in the next moment the thread (and it was a Japanese fishing-line) got so taut that it seemed to ring in the Spring water and with the next tug our little cat-fish found himself at the river bank. Now his whole body was racked by a sharp pain, but seemed not to feel it. The last hope was lost. There was nothing to grasp at, no salvation was expected...
Oh, how he lacked for his father's education! If only he knew how to break free from the hook, he would still be alive, though wounded...
And yet the little cat-fish continued to resist. He violently arched his wide tail and it seemed to root himself into the sandy bottom.
The man didn't want to play with the fish any longer. He resolutely pulled the line towards himself so as to finish this unnecessary struggle. The fishing line grew taut, as if it was a bowstring. The line pulled the little cat-fish out onto the ground a little, but at the last moment the lip of the little cat-fish, onto which it was hooked, gave way and the hook together with the line flew into air without any catch.
The little cat-fish, gathering its senses, rushed away from the river bank and disappeared into the safety of the depths. Frightened to death, he slipped under a snag and hid. The deep wound hurt a lot. All his skin on the lower part of his body smarted, having been considerably lacerated during the struggle by sharp stones at the bank.
Water was washing blood out of the wound. Diffusing, it formed a solid red cloud in front of his eyes. His fright didn't go away, his whole body quivered and even so, this fright was completely different compared with that, which he had happened to go through. Now he needed to calm down and gather his strength. However that might be, he remained alive and thanked God for that. Otherwise, he could have become fish-soup for the tourists.
But his fear lasted for a long time. Certainly, the danger had passed, his fellow cat-fish were swimming peacefully nearby and the little cat-fish understood himself that he was safe now. Nevertheless, some sort of internal force held him under cover. Every sound and movement made the little cat-fish shudder, therefore he couldn’t bring himself to swim away from this secluded spot and was on his guard in case of new adventures.
The little cat-fish spent more than a day under the snag, not risking to show himself out. And only by the next evening did he dare to swim into open water and felt more fearlessly.
His lip stopped bleeding and gradually started healing with a layer of thick subcutaneous fat. He felt almost no more pain. In addition, he was very hungry.
The little cat-fish swam cautiously watching carefully the surrounding expanses, listening attentively to every sound. He was lucky to find several crayfish at the edge of a hole and ate them. Then he tried young shoots of some green alga. From these he scraped some small water mollusks — appetizing slugs and tasty clam-shells.
...With the advent of another spring the little cat-fish was three years old. Now he has become a real giant, no less than two feet long and weighing almost five pounds. All this, of course, gave him confidence in this strength.
As soon as water in the river got warmer and spawning period approached, the young cat-fish, confident in his strength, together with other male cat-fish, swam to the place where spawning would take place. He also wanted to find a girl-friend for himself, so that he could spend springtime with her. He moved towards the most attractive one, from his point of view. But had he just approached her, when a strong competitor appeared on his way. However, the young cat-fish was not a faint-hearted fellow. He wasn't frightened and decided to stand up for himself. The more so, it would be even shameful to back off — how will he look in the eyes of this “beauty” after that?
After a little thought, he moved forwards. He had a terrifying appearance; he spread apart his “whiskers” and turned his wide flat head several times.
As soon as he got near his opponent, unexpectedly for himself, he received a blow on his back from his opponent's wide tail. But he was not going to retreat.
So they faced each other — eyes to eyes. They let out and drew frothy water out of their wide jaws. They were waiting for something, perhaps, assessing the strength of each other before the attack. And each of them in his turn was getting ready for a decisive assault.
The first to attack was the young cat-fish. Being unrestrained and hot-tempered, he skillfully dove down, gathering speed and struck his opponent in the belly. By this he hoped to put his opponent off balance and send him as far away as possible from the hole, where the “nest” would be.
It seemed that the opponent hadn't foreseen the moment of this strike. He was turned so that his belly faced upwards and he even started perplexedly flapping his fin on the water surface. Inspired by his first successful attack, the young cat-fish started a new one. He excitedly hit the other cat-fish around the head with his tail, not giving his opponent time to come to his senses.
Suddenly the older cat-fish sort of woke up, shuddered and started a counter attack himself. He kind of got out of his state of shock and decided to stand up for himself. His tail rose for a moment high above the quiet water and a stunning blow reverberated throughout the body of his young rival.
Our young cat-fish was numbed for an instant. He had never experienced anything like this before. An inexplicable pain and an unpleasant sensation seized his whole body. In a semiconscious state he was carried by the current far down the river. So such was the sad end of this unexpected meeting.
Having recovered a little, the young cat-fish didn't lose time in vain and again set off in search of happiness. He went up-stream, leaving behind lived-in cat-fish “settlements”. With special care, he went past the place of his unsuccessful duel. And it wasn't out of fear. No, he wasn't afraid at all and was ready to fight with the winner once again.
The river became too shallow, it meandered like a ribbon amongst trees and hillocks. In some places it became so shallow that even large stones weren't covered with water. Only at one
of the high steep banks there was enough depth for our young cat-fish to swim easily, just as a laden vessel sailing through a maritime fairway.
Suddenly he saw before him a young cat-fish female. He swam towards her. His eyes started to shine, his whole body gave a start, his back began to shine brighter and small brown spots appeared on his belly. Excitedly, he indecisively approached and slowly swam around the new “lady”, as if inviting her for a dance. The female cat-fish accepted his invitation. And then they set off on a search of a place for a “nest”.
They have swum up-stream quite a long way and still couldn't find a suitable place. Actually, there were lots of such places, but they were all occupied. Besides, they had to keep a certain distance, for other males jealously guarded not only their “nest”, but also a great territory around it.
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