02 Spinning for Maimer. CHAPT. V. 



They would seem to have been conversing. Watch them dragging 

 a cockroach up the side of a wall. It is about fifty times the size 

 and weight of any one of them, but there they are on all sides, 

 some upholding, some dragging, some pushing, others indicating the 

 way, and others coming as reliefs, but all evidently understanding 

 each other, and consequently working with a unanimity of purpose 

 which alone could make it possible to accomplish their end as 

 they do. They clear fields, sow seeds, cultivate them, and in due 

 course cut, carry, and store crops in granaries built for the purpose. 

 They forage for, capture, stall, feed, and milk cows. They main- 

 tain armies and take prisoners. They have a well ordered society. 

 It is impossible that they could do all this without being able to 

 communicate freely witli each other. 



Though arguments to this end might lie multiplied at pleasure, 

 and are to be found in convincing force in the writings of Sir .John 

 Lubbock, in " Mind in the Lower Animals," by W. Lauder Lindsay, 

 M.I)., and such like works devoted to the subject, enough for the 

 purpose of this work has probably been said, in passing, to satisfy 

 the reader generally that beasts, birds, and insects can and do con- 

 verse as freely as human beings, and consequently that there is a 

 presumption in favour of the same faculty being possessed by fish. 

 There being no apparent grounds why fish alone should be an 

 exception to the general rule, and all analogy being favourable 

 to their being able to communicate ideas, we may examine with 

 less incredulity, without any presumption to the contrary, and 

 consequently with more fairness, whether or not there are any 

 indications of their exercising the power which they may well 

 possess. 



I instance first the example above given of a large fish deterring 

 Bmaller ones from anticipating him in the matter of food; and 1 

 beg a re-perusal of those remarks with less incredulity and more 

 seriousness, than was, perhaps, given to them before. I have seen 

 the same with chub also, as well as with Mahseer. I have seen 

 six or eight chub attracted by my floating cockchafer, and appa- 

 rently meditating taking it, when they hung back, divided, and 

 made way for a comparatively much larger chub of 2J lbs., who 

 sailed inajestiea 11 \ up to the bait, and took it leisurely down, with a 

 seeming confidence thai the others would not presume to anticipate 

 him. lie must have made them understand, even though he came 



