ADDITIONAL NOTES. 289 



tatory nerves. Now, as fishes are not destitute of these nerves, 

 it may be inferred they are not without the power belonging to 

 them. Reflecting, however, on the general structure of their 

 mouth, it seems likely that the sense is no wise refined, and is 

 rather for discrimination than enjoyment, and that commonly 

 it has little attention paid to it. Their manner of feeding, too, 

 coarse as it is (swallowing commonly entire articles of food, — 

 regardless, seemingly, whether dead or alive, — as live insects are 

 often met with in the stomach of the trout), favours the inference. 

 A friend of mine, an acute observer, in conversation on this sub- 

 ject, remarked to me, " If you watch a trout from a bridge, you 

 will see that he takes into his mouth, as it were for trial, all 

 small floating objects within his reach, whether fit or unfit to 

 administer to his nourishment, rejecting the latter, retaining and 

 swallowing only the former." And, I may add, the experienced 

 angler acts as if aware of this, knowing how little is his chance 

 of success, unless he be on the alert, with eye intent and hand 

 ready to strike the instant the fish seizes his fly. 



As regards another sense — that of hearing, not alluded to 

 by the author — there can be no doubt that it is possessed by 

 fishes, as they have an auditory apparatus and nerves, and as 

 the medium they inhabit is capable of conveying the vibrations 

 required to act on these nerves. Angling being truly " the con- 

 templative man's recreation," the avoidance of noise by the 

 river-side need not be exhorted ; nor need gentle sounds — all 

 such as are not unsuitable to the time and occasion — be appre- 

 hended ; as, from the structure of the ear of fishes, it may be 

 inferred that their organ of hearing is a dull one, fitted, as we 

 find everything in nature is, to the circumstances and wants of 

 the creature. Walton, in his " Complete Angler," adduces in- 

 stances from Bacon, Pliny, and others, in proof of fishes having 

 the power of hearing, adding, " It shall be a rule for me to make 

 as little noise as I can when I am fishing, until Sir Francis Bacon 

 be confuted, which I shall give any man leave to do ; " con- 

 cluding with the exhortation that anglers " should be patient, 

 and forbear swearing, lest they be heard, and catch no fish." 



Of all the senses, that of sight seems to be possessed in the 

 highest degree of acuteness and power by fishes, especially the 

 Salinonidae, judging from the structure of their eyes and the 

 manner in which they are alarmed by passing objects such as 



