THE MIND OF FISHES. 6i 



How well, even with such manual deficiency, and opposed 

 to constant danger, he succeeds in supporting the burden 

 of existence, sometimes for very lengthened periods ! 

 There is an instance on record of a carp maintaining 

 himself for ninety years ; and, as readers of Izaak Walton 

 know, it is said to have been demonstrated that the 

 celebrated " Frederick the Second Pike" lived at least 

 two hundred and sixty-seven years. How many mem- 

 bers of our own species, unblessed by early parental 

 training, launched upon the world Avithout education, 

 would be able to support themselves without assistance 

 from the Union or the State, or the charity of friends or 

 relatives, for even the shorter period ? 



Observe that, destitute of such vulgar and obvious 

 muscular appliances as arms and legs, and of a large 

 cerebrum, the fish is mainly dependent upon a wonder- 

 fully lively spinal column, which, if not absolutely brain 

 matter, is at least closely akin to such, and upon relatively 

 large optic ganglia, embracing a visual arrangement as 

 yet little understood, but evidently of singular power. 

 The fish is indebted, therefore, rather to nerve tissue than 

 to muscular or brute force. And as intelligence, so far 

 as we can analyse it, seems to exist largely by im- 

 pressions of external things, may we not suppose that 

 the peculiarity of its organs of sight enables the fish to 

 dispense with a very elaborate organ for calculation ^ 

 That by getting complete and correct ideas to begin 

 with, he has no need for intricate machinery for subse- 

 quent sifting and comparing operations ? 



And with reference to the coolness of his blood, may 



