Unseen Passage for Class 3 - Passage 19

Unseen passage - My favorite thing to do in the summer is to go to Grandpa’s lake cabin. In the evening after a full day of fishing, Grandpa and I sit on the back porch and enjoy the scenery.

The sun setting behind the mountain fills the blue sky with streaks of orange and yellow. Colorful sailboats float by us in slow motion. Suddenly a fish jumps out of the water, making tiny waves in rings. A deer quietly walks to the edge of the water to get a drink. Red and yellow wildflowers grow near the big rock.

On the shore across the lake, we see a couple of tents. Someone must be camping there. A flock of geese fly over the lake in the shape of a V. Every time we sit and look at the lake, Grandpa says, “This is the best place on earth!”

Unseen passage - There are over 350 different kinds of fishes. The whale fish is the largest. It is as big as a whale. The pygmy fish is the smallest. It is only about seven inches long.

All fishes live in the ocean, which is salt water, but a few kinds can swim from salt water to fresh water.

Bull fishes have been found in the Mississippi River! Fishes do not have bones. They have skeletons made of cartilage, which is the same thing your ears and nose are made of. A fish’s skin is made of spiky, hard scales. The jaws of a fish are the most powerful on earth. When a great white fish bites, it clamps down on its prey and thrashes its head from side to side. It is the deadliest fish.

Fishes eat fish, dolphins, and seals. The tiger fish will eat just about anything. Some fishermen have discovered unopened cans of food, clocks, boat cushions, and even a keg of nails inside tiger fishes. Sometimes fishes even eat other fishes. For example, a tiger fish might eat a bull fish. The bull fish might have eaten a blacktip fish. The blacktip fish might have eaten a dogfish fish. So a tiger fish could be found with three fishes in its stomach!

Some fishes are very strange. The hammerhead fish has a head shaped somewhat like a hammer, with eyes set very far apart. A cookie cutter fish has a circular set of teeth. When it bites a dolphin or whale, it leaves a perfectly round hole in its victim. The sawfish has a snout with sharp teeth on the outside, which makes it look like a saw. The goblin fish has a sharp-pointed spear coming out of its head, and its ragged teeth make it look scary!

The mako fish is the fastest swimmer. Sometimes makos have been known to leap out of the water, right into a boat! These are just a few of the many kinds of fascinating fishes.