42 ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



search would doubtless modify our prejudices, and might 

 even yield a rich and surprising mass of testimony, but 

 probably its most important result would be to show us 

 how restricted after all is our scope of observation. Little 

 must be our knowledge regarding the life-history of 

 creatures dwelling in a portion of the world very much 

 larger in extent than that occupied by terrestrial organisms. 



But an attempt to pursue these various branches of 

 the subject, with patience and diligence, would be unsuit- 

 able to the present occasion. I shall, therefore, restrict 

 myself to a few general reflections attributable to the 

 period when I officiated as curator of the Manchester 

 Aquarium. These may serve to elicit more important 

 contributions to the science of the subject from anglers. 

 For a pursuit so essentially observant, and affording such 

 breadth of opportunity for cogitation, as is that of the 

 angler, should be productive of considerable acquaintance 

 with the phenomena of ichthyological psychology. 



It is perhaps not an exaggerated statement that there 

 exists a stronger tendency to reject the idea of mind in 

 regard to fishes, than in regard to any other living creatures. 

 One gentleman, to whom I have mentioned my theme, has 

 taken it for granted that I shall merely endeavour to pro- 

 duce a treatise in the vein of Charles Lamb's celebrated 

 Essay on Roast Pig; while another has candidly expressed 

 his behef that the notion of intelligence in the scaly tribe can 

 only be associated with mental aJbberation in the human 

 subject. This prejudice has found proverbial expression. 

 Thus, when a man is known by his friends to be exces- 

 sively partial to alcoholic recreation, he is sometimes said 



