NiNra DAY.] HEREDITARY INSTINCT. 225 



habits,, the wild young ones instantly fly from man, 

 the tame ones are indifferent to his presence. 



POIET. No one can be less disposed than I am 

 to limit the powers of living nature, or to doubt 

 the capabilities of organised structures; but it 

 does appear to me quite a dream, to suppose that a 

 fish, pricked by the hook of the artificial fly, 

 should transmit a dread of it to its offspring, though 

 he does not even long retain the memory of it 

 himself. 



HAL. There are instances quite as extraordinary ; 

 but I will not dwell upon them, as I am not quite 

 sure of the fact which we are discussing ; I have made 

 a guess only, and we must observe more minutely to 

 establish it ; it may be even as you suppose a mere 

 dream. 



POIET. I shall go and look at the fall : I am 

 really satiated with sport ; this is the twentieth fish I 

 have taken in an hour, and it is a grayling of at least 

 seventeen inches long ; and there is a trout of eighteen, 

 and several salmon trout, which look as if they had 

 run from the sea. 



HAL. These salmon trout have run from a sea, 

 but not from a salt sea ; they are fish of the Traun 

 See, as it is called by the Germans, or Traun Lake, 

 which is emptied by this river. 



PHTS. Tell us why they are so different from the 



