Chut. win. Tin- Locomotion offish. 295 



the means of utilizing in Borne the principle of the inclined plane. 

 The fish, however, is suspended in the midst of an element of very 

 nearly the same weight as itself, so nearly the same weight that 

 the dilation or contraction of the little air bladder, which most 

 fishes possess, suffices to make it heavier or lighter than water, and 

 consequently to fall or rise quickly therein. To solve the problem 

 of locomotion in such widely different circumstances would have 

 sorely puzzled man surely. Even with the secret laid bare before 

 him, and availed of in steamers, what a very poor approach has he 

 made to the rapidity of the motion of fish, a progression so rapid 

 that the eye can scarcely follow the trout that has darted up stream 

 like a vanishing shadow. What is 1G or 20 knots an hour to 160 

 or 200 ? And why should not the latter speed be attained in 

 vessels by following more closely the fish's method of swimming, 

 and utilizing the unlimited powers of stored electricity. Surely 

 the " open secret " of the locomotion of birds and fishes may serve, 

 and be meant to serve, to show us how to utilize like powers, and, 

 with stored electricity as a motor, we may well vie with them 

 both in their own elements. 



To some this may seem grandly chimerical; but to them we 

 will say that stranger things have happened ; such, for instance, as 

 this little book coming to a Second Edition ! With such extended 

 means of communication the widely scattered and divided Empire 

 of Britain could be consolidated into far the most powerful nation 

 in the world. But I beg pardon that a follower of " the contem- 

 plative man's recreation " should have dared to be contemplative. 

 Those fishes set me on. 



Kingfishers do not eat fish and fry only. I have seen them 



doing good work in killing tadpoles, and when the rivers are 



discoloured with monsoon floods, in which they can see nothing, 



they desert the rivers and go miles inland, feeding on young 



and other things. 



When the Bassia, the tree called in Tamil illippe, and in 

 Telugn and Canarese //</«•, sheds its flowers on tin; water I 

 have seen the Burlus.L nlom and the B. Chnjsopoma, and I suspect 

 others, feeding on it with avidity. 



Riding at a foot's pace after a guide on foot is tedious. If 

 you press him you only lose time in the end by his getting 

 out of breath, and it is cruel. Send a peon that understands it 



