FIRST EMPTYING. 39 



even a man cannot get much beyond that. A man I knew 

 passed over a bridge spanning a little tributary of Ullswater 

 at his dinner time every day for months. A small trout lay 

 constantly just in sight in the stream below, and the kind- 

 hearted workman every day dropped the fish a worm as 

 he passed. The worm came as regularly as twenty-five 

 minutes to one o'clock, and no doubt the fish regulated his 

 domestic affairs by the punctuality of that meal. But a 

 day came when the wicked man turned away from his 

 righteousness, put a hook in the worm and attached a string 

 to the hook. That is where the extra brain substance 

 comes in. The fish, with faith in his benefactor, stimulated 

 by appetite and custom, took the worm, and the angler 

 pulled the string, but the fish fell back into its accustomed 

 place in the river and lost his dinner to save his life. For 

 from that day forth, though the wicked man daily dropped 

 him a worm, as usual, without a hook, so far as my 

 informant could observe the fish never looked at a worm 

 thereafter. 



Now contrast this with incidents within my personal 

 experience, one of which would suggest the question, " Do 

 fish sleep ?" I was coming down the little Yorkshire river 

 Skirfare, one brilliant day in June ; there had been no rain 

 for weeks, the river was singularly low and as clear as 

 water can be ; here and there trout scuttled away before 

 me into their hiding-places. Suddenly I perceived from the 

 middle of the little river a trout lying apparently half- 

 curled up on a small rock projecting from the bank, and 

 about a foot under the surface of the water. I stood 

 directly opposite to him, and was struck, of course, by the 

 fact that he made no attempt to bolt ; therefore I lowered 

 my landing net, pushed it gently towards him, and when at 

 length it was within a foot of his ledge I made a rush, 

 slipped it under him and got the trout. He was a well-fed 

 fish and in good condition, and as lively as need be. Was 



