AND HOW TO CATCH HIM. '21 



expecting too much to suppose them capable of distinguishing man 

 from man, yet it is quite certain they know a man from a beast, and 

 have, doubtless, the discrimination to descry their enemies, even 

 among the brute creation ; for though unapprehensive of danger from 

 an ox, they most assuredly fly off in terror on catching but a glimpse 

 of an otter. That they are not scared by cattle, either on the banks or 

 in the water I have had abundant proof, as have doubtless many 

 of my readers, by catching trout quite close to them when standing 

 in the river, though a human being making his appearance there 

 would have driven off every fish to his hover. But though fishes 

 can discern objects clearly through the water, yet they see very 

 imperfectly when out of that element, and for this reason, when 

 you wish to land a bulky fish, you should always endeavour to 

 keep his eyes well above water when you approach him with a 

 landing net, which he will then allow you to place passively under 

 his body being, in fact, blind to the whole proceeding ; but if you 

 let his eyes remain under water, as he will then catch a view of 

 what is going on, it is very likely he will make a fresh struggle, 

 and perhaps, just at that critical moment effect his escape. 



But if trouts have a quick sight, they are equally defective in 

 hearing; which appears from repeated experiments made by Mr. 

 Ronalds, as by firing off a gun, or shouting within a distance of 

 six feet off from them, and which never produced the slightest 

 effect : from which he concludes them to be totally insensible to 

 sounds. If this be so, the trout is defective in a sense most other 

 fishes are well known to possess. Thus from Sir Francis Bacon's 

 experiments, even Izaak Walton himself by his own confession, 

 was made to crave pardon of one that he laughed at for affirming 

 that he knew carps come to a certain place in a pond to be fed at 

 the ringing of a bell, or the beating of a drum. Pliny even goes so 

 far as to report that one of the emperors had particular fish ponds, and 

 in them several fish that appeared and came when called by their 

 particular names ; and also that Antonia, the wife of Drusus, pos- 

 sessed a lamprey at whose gills she hung jewels or ear-rings ; and 

 that others have been so tender hearted as to have shed tears at 

 the death of fishes they had kept and loved. And these observa- 

 tions seem to have a further confirmation from Martial, lib. 4, 

 epigr. 30, who writes thus : 



"Piscator fuge ne nocens, &c." 



