28 SALMON! A. 



PoiET. — He springs again and again. 



Hal. — He is off; in one of these somersets 

 he detached the steel, and he now leaps to 

 celebrate his escape. We will leave this place, 

 where there are more great fish, and return to 

 it after a while, when the alarm produced by 

 our operations has subsided. 



Phys. — That fish take the artificial fly at 

 all is rather surprising to me, for in its most 

 perfect form it is but a rude imitation of na- 

 ture ; and fi'om the greedy manner in which 

 it is seized, fish, I think, cannot possess a re- 

 fined sense of smell, or any nervous system 

 corresponding to the nasal one in animals that 

 breathe air : no scent can be given to water 

 by an artificial fly, or, at least, none like that 

 of the natural fly. 



Hal. — The principal use of the nostrils in 

 fishes, I believe, is to assist in the propulsion 

 of water through the gills for performing the 

 office of respiration ; but I think there are 

 some nerves in these organs which give fishes 

 a sense of the qualities of the water, or of sub- 

 stances dissolved in, or diffused through it, 

 similar to our sense of smell, or, perhaps, 



