124 FISHES AND FISHING. 



and line, the other will gnaw the line, and set the 

 captive free. Or, if one enter a weel and be caught, 

 the other will, with companions of the same genus, 

 force their tails between the twigs of the weel, in the 

 manner of a wedge, and the imprisoned fish takes 

 hold of a tail thus thrust in, to cause the twigs to 

 diverge from each other, and passes out. Is not this 

 a proof of intellectual reasoning ? These fish, accord 

 ing to Oppian, have strong feelings of friendship ; 

 and the ancieut fishermen used their knowledge of 

 the passions of fish to ensnare them : an amusing 

 account of one device for the purpose, but too long 

 to quote, is in book iv. verses 90 to 110. 



In Mr. Hugh Miller's work, " Foot-prints of the 

 Creator," an account of the dog-fish shews the intel 

 ligence they possess to avoid being captured. They 

 keep aloof from, but follow the net of the fishermen, 

 and as soon as a few herrings are shaken loose from 

 the meshes, they dart upon and devour them ; and in 

 the deep-sea white fishing, a pack of dog-fish will 

 watch beside the boat, and will carry off the lower 

 part of the hooked fish, so as to avoid the swallowed 

 hook, and thus deprive the fisherman of a great 

 portion of his fishing ; it is observed that sometimes 

 a fresh pack of these fish will come to where the 

 first have been cautiously waiting, and as soon as 

 that occurs, mutually jealous of each other, the whole 



