SENSES OF FISHES. 25 



than what I have mentioned of the carps; for the 

 pike is held to be a more wild, untameable fish than 

 the carp, and as it is a fish of prey, it has been thought 

 impossible to civilise it, or make it any way familiar to 

 mankind." 



In the case of fish-ponds, M. Lebault accordingly 

 advises not to suffer much shooting at wild fowl, inas- 

 much as he is of opinion, that it frightens, injures, and 

 destroys the fish. This opinion, however theoretical 

 it may appear to some, seems to be proved by the 

 observations of our celebrated physiologist, Mr. John 

 Hunter, who describes the ear of fishes, always he 

 says important, if not new with him, as consisting of a 

 gristly substance, very hard or firm in parts, and in 

 some species crusted over with a thin plate of bone, so 

 as not to allow it to collapse. The ear of fishes, he 

 also remarked to possess the singular peculiarity of 

 increasing with the size of the individual, whereas in 

 quadrupeds, the ear is nearly as large in the young as 

 in the full grown animal. Mr. Hunter was not con- 

 tented with ascertaining the structure of the ear in 

 fishes, but experimented upon the power of the faculty 

 itself. 



" When in Portugal," says he, " in 1762, I observed 

 in a nobleman's garden near Lisbon, a small fish-pond 

 full of different sorts of fish. Its bottom was level 

 with the ground, and was made by forming a bank all 

 round, with a shrubbery close to it ; whilst lying on 

 the bank seeing the fish, I desired a gentleman, who 

 was my companion, to go behind the shrubs, (that 

 there might be no reflection of light from the flash,) 



