SENSES OF FISHES. 23 



without any new fashioned slashes, or hanging sleeves, 

 waving loose like sailes about you, for they are like 

 blinks which will ever chase your game from you." 



Hearing in Fishes. 



Barker, in his singular book, entitled "Delight," 

 tells us, that Edward Lord Montagu one evening 

 desired him to catch him a dish of trouts against the 

 next morning by six o'clock, and on dropping a hook 

 baited with two lobworms on the water, as is done in 

 fly fishing, the slight plunge attracted the fish to the 

 spot, and as the night was dark he had good sport. 

 This proves beyond doubt, I think, that, in the dark at 

 least, fish are led to their food by hearing ; and as 

 they came in this manner to Barker's lobworms, they 

 would no doubt in the same way have run after a 

 minnow, or any other fish or insect whose movements 

 through the water they might have heard. 



M. Gouan of Montpelier tried some experiments 

 upon the hearing of gold fishes kept in glass vases, in 

 which he found that they took no notice of the loudest 

 sounds, so long as he could prevent the tremor of the 

 air from affecting the water ; and without considering 

 that it is this very tremor of the air or water which 

 constitutes sound, he came to the conclusion, that gold 

 fishes, and probably fishes in general, are destitute of 

 hearing. A conclusion, however, which can easily be 

 disproved, independently of the mythological story of 

 Amphion and the dolphins, or of the old Scottish 

 harper, Glenkindie, who, as the ballad has it, " harped 

 a fish out o' the sa't water." 



