66 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



teaching, to learn the obstructive nature of a glass 

 barrier. The idea that fish can learn from seeing 

 others drawn out is absurd, since it credits them 

 with powers both of indirect observation and 

 logical reasoning. It may even be questioned if 

 the so-called wisdom of fish is at all of the nature 

 of intelligence, whether acquired by experience or 

 by heredity, assisted by elimination. To a large 

 extent the elusive actions of fish are mechanical 

 responses to stimuli acting through acute senses ; 

 and when the effectiveness of the senses is reduced, 

 as in darkness, the caution of the fish is propor- 

 tionately diminished. There is nothing more 

 certain, however, than that trout will continue to 

 be credited with keen, conscious wisdom, accumu- 

 lating with experience in old fish. It is necessary 

 for the angler's story that it should be so, and 

 that truth -loving person will not tamely be 

 deprived of the groundwork of those moving 1 

 dramas in which, with marvellous success, he 

 matches his intelligence against the more than 

 human sagacity of ancient fish. 



