ORGANS OF SMELL IN SALMON. 301 



divided iuto two by means of a diaphragm of skin which 

 runs across from side to side. This is the nostril, and 

 a beautiful bit of mechanism it is. If the valve at its 

 entrance, formed by the skin (as above described), be 

 removed with a knife or a pair of scissors, it will be seen 

 that the bottom of the opening consists of a flooring of 

 a delicate red substance. If the fish's head be then 

 placed in water, the red substance will be seen to 

 consist of numerous folds lying side by side, and all 

 diverging from a common centre. These folds float 

 about free in the water, and receive the impressions of 

 the smell of the water by means of the delicate nerve- 

 fibres which are spread out upon them. The fish has, 

 in fact, a nose made for smelling in the water, not a 

 nose for smelling in the air. A dog cannot smell in 

 the water, and I am certain a fish could not smell in 

 the air, as the folds of his smelling organism would 

 clog together, just as his gill-fibres clog together when 

 he is out of his native element. 



In a large salmon, I find that the flooring of the 

 nostril is as large as a big pea in section ; there can, 

 therefore, be no doubt whatever that the power of 

 smell is very important to the beast himself, or it 

 would not be so large. It has been objected to my 

 argument that water has no smell — has it not ? In 

 hot weather town sewers and offensive water courses 

 demand, in a language not to be misunderstood, the 

 attention of the sanitary authorities. Water is, in fact, 

 a great absorbent of stinks ; and lucky it is so, as one 

 great use of water is to clean things, and it keeps its 

 cleaning properties for a long time, i.e., if the old 

 proverb be true — 



*' 'Tis the greatest blessing that God hath geen, 

 That dirty water will wash clean." 



