THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 117 



time ; for Gesner observes, the otter smells a fish forty furlono-s 

 off him in the water : and that it may be true, seems to be af- 

 firmed by Sir Francis Bacon, in the Eighth Century of his Natu- 

 ral History, who there proves that waters may be the medium of 

 sounds, by demonstrating it thus : " That if you knock two stones 

 together very deep under the water, those that stand on a bank 

 near to that place may hear the noise without any diminution of 

 it by the water." He also offers the like experiment concerning 

 the letting an anchor fall by a very long cable or rope on a rock, 

 or the sand, within the sea ; and this being so well observed and 

 demonstrated, as it is by that learned man, has made me to be- 

 lieve that eels unbed themselves and stir at the noise of thunder ; 

 and not only, as some think, by the motion or stirring of the earth 

 which is occasioned by that thunder. 



And this reason of Sir Francis Bacon, Exper. 792, has made 

 me crave pardon of one that I 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 : and however, it shall 

 be a rule for me to make as little noise as I can when I am fish- 

 ing, until Sir Francis Bacon be confuted, which I shall give any 

 man leave to do.* 



And, lest you may think him singular in his opinion, I will tell 



* Hawkins notes here : " That fish hear, is confirmed by the authority 

 of late writers : Swammerdam asserts it, and adds, ' They have a wonder- 

 ful labyrinth of ear for the purpose. Of Insects, London, 1758, p. 50. A 

 clergyman, a friend of mine, assures me, that at the Abbey of St. Ber- 

 nard, near Antwerp, he saw trout come at the whistling of the feeder." 



I have read somewhere of a trout who was kept for a long time in a 

 little spring pond, that answered to the name of " Tom." In the Ayr 

 Observer, there was mention made of an eel in a garden well, which came 

 to be fed out of a spoon by the children on being called by his name, Rob 

 Roy. Pickering's Anec. of Fish and Fishing, p. 13S. Lucian {Syrian 

 Goddess) says : " There is also an adjacent lake, very deep, in which 

 many sacred fishes are kept; some of the largest have names given to 

 them, and come when they are called." The solution of the question may 

 be, that the instinct of fishes does not lead them to be alarmed by noises 

 with which they have no concern ; but that they soon learn to obey a 

 sound when it is for their benefit. It should have been remarked before, 

 that Walton quotes Bacon's Latin works through a translation by Rawley, 

 Lend., 1635-33-57.— ^m. Ed. 



