280 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



still an observant person, tliorouglily versed in 

 animal life, can soon see where the one ends 

 and the other begins. The bird in the Zoological 

 Gardens in London that with his foot tries the 

 temjDcraturc of the heating grass that covers the 

 co:2:s he is desirous of hatchinii', and increases the 

 quantity of hot grass or diminishes it as he deems 

 requisite, that bird is possessed of reason, because 

 there is an absolute learning, and reasonable thought, 

 inculcated by Nature, in what he does. The salmon 

 is led, by the instinctive desire to reach higher waters, 

 to attempt to approach them in only one way, and 

 that is, up the deepest bed to the foot of tlie main 

 fall in the river, and if that fall is not sufficient 

 for him to get up, then he will instinctively wait 

 for a ^' spate" or flood, and will not reasonably look 

 for any corner made for his ascent by human and 

 ignorant hands, in no way compatible with his 

 ^^ instinct." Tlicre never was so great a farce as 

 that of the salmon ladder, as first adjusted by 

 Messrs. Fennel, Buckland and Co. I had a fishery 

 on the Avon, as I have before alluded to, when 

 the foolish ladders for creatures without legs were 

 first set u]). I always laughed at and resisted 

 their imposition, and people have since come 



