46 ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



has been an appearance of success, it has always been 

 doubtful whether the fish have not seen my moving hand 

 and thus been influenced by vision rather than by hearing. 

 A noiseless wave of the hand has caused shoals of a 

 hundred or more to wheel with the regularity of a column 

 of infantry, but with far greater promptitude, the motion 

 being to my dull perception simultaneous. Dr. Carpenter 

 describes the ear of the fish as being moderately 

 developed and containing some curious little bones, 

 technically called otoliths. As the processes by which 

 the fish obtains and communicates ideas appear to differ 

 materially from our own, may we not imagine the 

 possibility of his having abstract conceptions of a some- 

 what different character from those which are the basis of 

 our rationality ^ Is it possible that he has somewhat 

 different mathematical axioms, for instance, from those 

 which are intuitive with us .-' Is he acquainted with space 

 of four or more dimensions .'' 



We cannot realise how a fish can talk ; the notion of 

 conversation in the water seems ridiculous. But the fish 

 clearly does communicate with his fellows in some way 

 which, however different from conversation as we under- 

 stand it, practically serves the same purpose. Fishers of 

 perch know that there is an end to their sport if they 

 allow one to escape from the hook. If a perch be drawn 

 smartly out of his native element every member of a 

 party may be successively captured, innocent of evil and 

 led on by an inquiring disposition (which surely is an 

 indication of intelligence), each fish follows his vanished 

 companions and falls a victim to his love of knowledge. 



