28 PISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



does not know that a shiner is the best bait to spin for trout 

 on a dark day ? 



The sight of fishes is too imperfect to enable them to de- 

 cide between friends and enemies. A shadow cast upon the 

 water , whether by a ship, seal, otter, or an angler, frightens 

 them. Sir Humphry Davy illustrates the truth of this the- 

 ory by the anecdote that some man, while walking up Bond 

 Street from one of the club-houses with an illustrious person- 

 age, laid a wager that he would see more cats than the prince 

 in his walk, and that the latter might take which side of the 

 street he liked. When they arrived at the end the prince 

 had not seen one, while the other had counted thirteen. The 

 explanation was that the prince had selected the shady side 

 of the street, while the other person chose the sunny side, 

 knowing that cats prefer sunshine. Sir Humphry, in his 

 " Salmonia," gives the following advice to students at an- 

 gling : " You have been, naturally enough, fishing with your 

 backs to the sun, which, not being very high, has thrown the 

 shadows of yourselves and your rods on the water, and you 

 have alarmed the fish whenever you have thrown a fly. You 

 see I have fished with my face toward the sun, and, though 

 inconvenienced by the light, have given no alarm." 



James Rennie,M.A, states that indistinctness in the vision 

 of fishes proves the fallacy of the routine angler, who fancies 

 the fishes are so well versed: in colors and forms of particu- 

 lar flies as to refuse other sorts in some seasons and on par- 

 ticular days, and even at different periods of the same day. 

 " Nothing' can be more preposterous than such a notion, uni- 

 versal though it be among the most experienced anglers ; yet 

 this theory is founded on natural philosophy, but the result 

 is to be accounted for on an entirely different principle." 



Daniell states " there is no evidence of any fishes seeing 

 a considerable distance, and the conduct of many of them, 

 that are deceived by different baits prepared in imitation of 

 their food, gives room to suspect that objects are not very 

 distinctly perceived by them, even when near." 



