FISH POSSESSED OF LITTLE SENSIBILITY. 11 



is wanted for food, or returns him into the 

 water. 



Phys. — But do you think nothing of the 

 torture of the hook, and the fear of capture, 

 and the misery of struggHng against the pow- 

 erful rod ? 



Hal. — I have already admitted the danger 

 of analysing, too closely, the moral character 

 of any of our field sports ; yet I think it can- 

 not be doubted that the nervous system of 

 fish, and cold-blooded animals in general, is 

 less sensitive than that of warm-blooded ani- 

 mals. The hook usually is fixed in the car- 

 tilaginous part of the mouth, where there are 

 no nerves ; and a proof that the sufferings of 

 a hooked fish cannot be great, is found in the 

 circumstance, that though a trout has been 

 hooked and played for some minutes, he will 

 often, after his escape with the artificial fly in 

 his mouth, take the natural fly, and feed as 

 if nothing had happened ; having apparently 

 learnt only from the experiment, that the ar- 

 tificial fly is not proper food. And I have 

 caught pikes with four or five hooks in their 

 mouths, and tackle which they had broken 



