Science: Fish Out of Water

For years, the Robert Ripleys and Richard Halliburtons confidently affirmed the fact. At last the sober, scholarly Smithsonian Institution solemnly confirmed it: some fish do climb trees.

According to recent Smithsonian Bulletin 188, The Fresh-Water Fishes of Siam by the late Dr. Hugh M. Smith, Siamese fish frequently set out on overland treks. One capricious clarias batrachus, apparently bored with captivity, jumped out of its bowl, wriggled down two long corridors, was caught high-tailing it out the front door. A Danish scientist named Daldorff once saw a fish leering at him from five feet up an Indian palm tree. The Smithsonian's Smith, admitting that he had never personally seen a fish climb a tree, was sure that it can, and does, happen in Siam.