AN INTELLIGENT COD. 391 



miniature which is his usual howf, and advancing straight to 

 the front of the tank, put his nose to the glass, wagging his 

 tail, and staring at us with an expression of countenance so queer 

 and comical, that it made us laugh outright. "Well, Nether 

 Lochaber, my boy," he seemed inclined to say, " how are you ? 

 This is all very fine, but on the word of a cod, believe me that I'd 

 far rather be cruising about the shores and shallows of Loch 

 Linnhe, down yonder in your own neighbourhood, than be con- 

 fined here from year's end to year's end, to be stared at by a lot of 

 people who may pretend some interest in me from a purely 

 scientific point of view, but who, between ourselves, if the truth 

 were known, never see me but they straightway think of how I 

 should be boiled and served with sauce. Only the other day, for 

 instance, a lady visitor from Glasgow asked one of the attendants 

 what he thought might be my weight, and if he was of opinion 

 that a cod out of an aquarium tank would be quite as good eating 

 as one direct from the sea ? When I hear talk of that kind, it 

 hurts my feelings, I can tell you." All this, and a great deal more, 

 we fancied the cod would have said if he could ; and as we tapped 

 the glass at his nose and bade him a friendly good-bye, we almost 

 persuaded ourselves that he responded with a knowing wink, as 

 with a single sweep of his tail he put about and joined the conger 

 in a brisk constitutional round and athwart the tank a tank so 

 crystal clear, and clean and comfortable, as indeed are all the tanks, 

 that the inmates, abundantly and regularly fed, ought to be 

 happy enough, were it not that, like Sterne's starling, they 

 probably find the great drawback on their happiness in the fact 

 that after all they are prisoners, that they can't get out. We 

 were much delighted with the seal-house and its lively and 

 intelligent occupants. The shape of a seal's head is sufficient to 

 convince the most careless observer that it must contain a great 

 deal of brains ; while its full and lively eye bespeaks a high and 



