24 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



The scales of a fish are for the purpose probably of defending it from its 

 enemies in the way of associates of a vegetable or animal parasitic or 

 devouring nature. If one be lost, it is again supplied in a manner 

 similar to the supply of a lost nail in the human being. Glands are 

 situated under the so-called lateral line and on the head of the fish, 

 and from them a sort of varnish of mucus is perspired, without which 

 fish cannot live long. When from any cause the supply fails, parasitic 

 growths make their appearance, and after them malignant ulcers, and 

 finally death. Eoach about spawning time are usually rough and devoid 

 of a plentiful supply. The roughness is caused by a sort of loosening 

 of the scales. This soon after the deposition of ova, however, subsides, 

 and an abundance of mucus makes it very unpleasant to handle the fish 

 at all. The scales of fishes are divided into four classes, which are 

 termed by Agassus cycloid, from the Greek eidos, resemblance, and 

 cyclos the circle ; ctenoid, from ctenis, a rake ; ganoid, from ganos, 

 brilliancy ; and placoid, from plax, a flat level surface. 



Now as to the senses of fishes, which, after all, is to anglers the most 

 important consideration of all. 



First I will advert to sight. This is, unquestionably, the best developed 

 sense in fishes, especially in the game fishes. In fish the eyes are 

 variously placed, some having them so situated that a forward, backward, 

 upward, and downward movement may be made, as in some of the carp 

 family bred by the Chinese, termed "telescope " fish ; in others, such as 

 trout, the sight is vastly more developed, but the movement of the eye 

 is more confined, hence I do not think a trout can see back, and in the 

 case of the pike, where the prey is seized chiefly above the destroyer 

 near the surface, the eyes are near the top of the head, and I opine and 

 have seen nothing to alter the opinion, that the pike cannot, without 

 great exertion and an anomalous arrangement of position, pick a bait 

 from the bottom of the water. The angler may be quite sure that when 

 he can see a fish that fish can invariably see him. An interesting question 

 has recently arisen in an American sporting paper as to "colour " blind- 

 ness in trout of certain waters. I am disposed to believe, without here 

 giving my reasons for it, that in some cases trout are afflicted, if not 

 with colour blindness, with certainly an unreasonable and unaccountable 

 desire for a certain hue which rarely, but in some cases, disappears. I 

 shall, however, discuss the matter in the chapter on Trout. 



The senses of smell and taste have been referred to to some extent in a 

 recent chapter, wherein I touched on the subject of baits, and need little, 

 if any, further consideration. Whilst I concede the power of smelling to 

 be tolerably acute. I am convinced that the sense of taste is very 

 imperfect. Mr. Pennell gives as a reason for believing that fish have a 



