INTELLIGENCE AND SPECIAL SENSES. 59 



ill;;, ill the ordinary sense of the term. IVIr. Bucklaud has ac- 

 mrately described the nature of the sensation they do possess, as 

 vibration. There can not be a doubt that fidh have no pof^siblc 

 conception" of cither vicinity, direction, or distance of the vibra- 

 tory disturbances they receive. A distant vibration disturbs a 

 shoal of fislics as much as a near one ; and fish feeding eagerly 

 at the bait will be alarmed and dispersed by the beat of a steam 

 vessel a mile off. All the stories of fish coming to be fed at the 

 sound of a bell or of a whistle are, of course, fables. Such 

 sounds made in the air will not communicate vibrations to the 

 fish beneath the surface of the water. They assemble only be- 

 cause they see a figure, and are accustomed to be fed upon such 

 occasions." 



No angler or fisherman of experience and observation 

 can be made to believe such specious and questionable state- 

 ments as the above. He knows better. 



As fishes live in a denser medium than terrestrial ani- 

 mals, and one that more readily transmits the Avaves of 

 sound, we should naturally expect to find a corresponding 

 difi'erence in the construction of the organ of hearins:. 

 While the internal ear of fishes differs only in degree, not 

 in kind, from that of the higher animals, they, of course, 

 have no external ear, nor is one necessary in so dense a 

 medium as water ; but for this reason it is the fashion to 

 say that they can only hear vibrations communicated through 

 the medium of the water or the shore, the " vibrations ' 

 meaning considerable "jars" or " shocks." 



The ear of fishes "lies close under the roof of the skull, and 

 is thus easily accessible to the waves of sound, which are con- 

 ducted partly througli the operculum (when present), and partly 

 through the gill slits or spiracle. As we pass to the higher ani- 

 mals, however, the auditory organ gradually sinks further and 



