('HUT. v. Filk coMmv.iv>, it, /,.' 



from behind them, that lie desired to have tint cock-chafei liimself, 

 and he must have felt confident that lie had expressed himself 

 itlv. and would be attended to. The aame oonclusian seems 

 to be pointed at by the frequently deliberate way in which a 1 

 tri>ut sucks down his fly, in contradistinction to the hurried dart of 

 the smaller trout 



Furthermore, how is it that when a river is much whipped, the 

 fish all get very shy ? I do not suppose they have all been pricked 

 1 iy the hook and got away, so as to have gained wisdom each by 



■nal experience. Surely there are too many thousands in the 

 river for that, and too many more thousands fresh burn every year. 

 Those that have been hook-pricked, not an inconsiderable number 

 certainly, are not improbably able to communicate the fact to the 

 others, and not till a large proportion of the community have thus 

 suffered, is much weight likely to be attached to their warnings, in 

 opposition to the cravings of nature. 



Certainly there is much to be urged in the contrary direction 



as, for instance, the fact that fish wdl keep on biting in one 

 particular spot, though they see their neighbours being pulled out 

 before their very eyes. Still men do things quite as foolish. They 

 engage in trades dangerous to life, and continue to follow them, 

 though they see their fellow workmen falling oft* around them from 

 which have been calculated to result with certainty after 



ted number of years. If the pressure of circumstances, res 

 anfusta domi, be too strong for the wisdom of the human being, 

 why should not the cravings of nature be allowed to have out- 



iied the caution of the fish, rather than be deduced as conclu- 

 sive evidence that he knows not the risk he is running. It is at 

 least an open question, and analogy and observation incline me to 

 the belief that fish can communicate ideas to each other, 



1 may not be able to deduce as many, or as striking examples, 

 as in the case of birds or beasts, but that, as I have already shown, 

 is the natural consequence of fish inhabiting an element in which 

 we are necessarily less at home than in our own. 



It is Dot necessary to my argument that the communication 

 should take place by means of oral sounds as with human beings, 

 though fish have the sense of hearing. Dr. W. Lauder Lindsay says : 



ions fish kept in pleasure ponds in gentlemen's demesnes 

 " also know their own voice or call, and sometimes even 



