40 VISION IN FISHES. 



going anglers, although it may prove that they 

 labour also under similar " indistinctness of vision" 

 (intellectually speaking), should not venture to 

 question the correctness of even a professor's 

 notions, particularly when a difference of opinion, 

 on anatomical and other grounds, exists among 

 naturalists themselves, and when a new angling 

 theory is founded on those notions. Mr. Eras- 

 mus Wilson, in summing up a minute conside- 

 ration of the subject, thus declares his opinion: 

 " Whether, therefore, we regard the mechanical 

 or the vital apparatus of the organ of vision, or 

 whether we pursue the inquiry by anatomical 

 investigation, or by observation of the habits of 

 the animals, we have the clearest evidence before 

 us that the faculty of sight in fishes is one of their 

 highest sentient endowments." Our readers will 

 judge for themselves as to the respective merits of 

 these conflicting opinions. 



If it be true that fish possess the faculty of 

 smelling in the perfection ascribed to them by 

 some naturalists, as mentioned in a preceding 

 page, it cannot be unreasonable to suppose that 

 rather from the lack of odour in the artificial fly 

 than from anything wrong in its appearance, trout 

 sometimes rise snappishly, or shorty without taking 

 it. On these occasions it is probable that they 



