<>,\ THE TROUT. 11 



Taste and Smell. 



It seemed almost impossible to devise experi- 

 ments relative to the sense of smell in fishes, which 

 would offer the prospect of satisfactory results, 

 without depriving the animal of sight ; the cruelty 

 of which operation deterred me from prosecuting 

 the enquiry. 



Observations on the taste of fishes are involved 

 in still greater difficulty. I once threw upon the 

 water, from my hut (by blowing them through a 

 tin tube) successively, ten dead house-flies, towards 

 a Trout known to me by a white mark upon the 

 nose, (occasioned by the wound of a hook), all 

 of which he took. Thirty more, with Cayenne, 

 pepper and mustard plastered on the least con- 

 spicuous parts of them, were then administered in 

 the same manner. These he also seized ; twenty 

 of them at the instant they touched the water, 

 and allowing no time for the dressing to be dis- 

 persed ; but the other ten remained a second or 

 two upon the surface before he swallowed them, 

 and a small portion of the dressing parted and 

 sank. The next morning several exactly similar 

 doses were taken by the same fish, who was appa- 



not pass out of air into water, if the angle of incidence, N E f, (fig. 2), 

 exceeds about 88 degrees (but will be reflected). 



The old experiment of the shilling and the basin of water affords an 

 easy practical demonstration of the first mentioned theorem. 



