PERCH-FISHING 61 
may be inclined to dash at the first bait offered to them, or 
they may sullenly decline the most seductive delicacies dangled 
before their noses. This irregularity of conduct is usually 
explained to be the result of electrical conditions of the atmo- 
sphere, whereof man is insensible, but to which the organism 
of fish respond in some peculiar way. The explanation is too 
vague to be scientific or satisfactory. Have not all fishermen 
experienced disappointment on what appeared to be an ex- 
cellent fishing day? And, on the other hand, have they not 
scored occasional success under conditions of weather most 
forbidding? I may mention in reference to this a suggestive 
incident which came under my notice some years ago illustrating, 
though far from explaining, the unaccountable behaviour of fish 
at uncertain times. It happened in Naples, one morning in 
January. Mount Vesuvius was capped with snow; at the 
sea-level the temperature was coldish, yet not so cold as to 
prevent me sitting for some time in the sunshine in the 
gardens of the Villa Nazionale. I then visited Dr. Dohrn in 
his magnificent Marine Biological Station, and finding that 
the fish and other animals were just about to be fed, I 
accompanied him and the feeder in their round of the tanks. 
All the creatures showed eagerness for their meal, until we 
came to a tank containing dog-fish—of all aquatic creatures 
most indiscriminately voracious. Much to my surprise they 
were motionless—curled up together in torpid squads at the 
bottom of the water. ‘No use giving them anything to-day,” 
quoth Dr. Dohrn, and, on my expressing surprise that they 
should be left fasting, he explained that at certain times these 
fish refused all food, and assumed this semi-torpid state, indiffer- 
ent to anything that might be offered tothem. He considered 
it probable that this was the result of certain meteorological 
conditions, which, though imperceptible to ourselves, affected 
the organism of these fishes in a manner unfavourable to 
activity. Herein, methought, lies the secret, could we but 
unravel it, of many an unprofitable day’s fishing at home. 
