INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS; ETC. 223 



certainly ended and reason miglit have begun, 

 not having reason at command, he kept to the bed 

 or natural course of the stream, and lay according 

 to instinct, and unsuspecting the deeds of men, 

 waiting for a ^^ freshet" to open him a passage, 

 and never thought of looking for some hole and 

 corner in which the ladders had been stuck, 

 as if for the express accommodation of bathing 

 boys or nightly prowling rats ; reason thus not in 

 any way coming to the rescue. 



Here, then, was a very good illustration of the 

 difference between reason and instinct. The Fishery 

 Commissioners themselves at the time having no 

 other instinct but that for place, and not having 

 reason enough to show them the grievous faults 

 into which they fell from their ignorance of natural 

 history, kept up all sorts of rumours as to the good 

 they were achieving; but as I at the time rented 

 the fishery at Winkton on the AvoUj and was 

 perfectly well acquainted with the Avon and Stour 

 fisheries, each side above and below me, I foresaw 

 and knew that they added not one salmon to the 

 spawning-beds by the working of their new-fangled 



gear. 



I refused to put ladders to my weirs, and con- 



