Sport: Dead Lice

In Seattle, fortnight ago, six fishermen lined up outside a boathouse on Elliott Bay, to receive prizes. They were the top six winners in the annual Salmon Derby sponsored by the Seattle Times. The prizes were brand-new automobiles.

Last week four of the six prizewinners lined up inside a Seattle police court. Three of them—Anthony Zuanich Jr., Frank Dupee, M. E. Smith—were charged with grand larceny. The fourth, a langorous blonde named June Smaaladen, was held as a material witness. It was charged that their fishing feats had not been altogether on the up& -up. Ringleader Zuanich, a sneaky-eyed no-good from nearby Everett, confessed that he had bought four whopping salmon from an Indian fish trapper, had hidden them at an isolated spot on the edge of the bay. On Derby morning, he and his three accomplices, to whom he had promised $300 apiece from the resale price of their prize-winning automobiles, rowed out to the spot, rowed in whooping with their dead whoppers.

They got their fake catch past the jealous eyes of fellow fishermen, but the weighing-in officials were harder to fool. Somebody noticed the sea lice clinging to their fish. Sea lice usually outlive salmon by six hours. The lice on the prizewinning fish were dead as doornails.