1Q2 



FISHES AND FISHING. 



how he became deprived of sight, until reading the 

 *' Practical Angler," a very useful book, published by 

 Simpkin and Marshall, 1842, I formed a solution of 

 the question. It is there stated, p. 13, that an 

 eel has been seen to dart against a trout, striking it 

 so forcibly near the eye, with his lower jaw, which 

 protrudes beyond the upper, that the trout was stun- 

 ned, turned on its back, and floated insensible down 

 the stream. In the river Test, there are eels of a 

 ver J'- large size, and one of them probably had attacked 

 this trout, and blinded him ; now as the eel could 

 not have eaten a fish of that size whilst alive, but 

 would easily pick his bones after the trout was dead, 

 it appears something like a kind of intellect on the 

 part of the eel, thus apparently providing a future 

 feast for himself, or some of his species. 



It is amusing to sit in a punt, over a sand-bank, 

 on a bright day, in a quiet part of the river Thames, 

 where the water is shallow and clear, and pick out 

 the gudgeons you wish to capture, by putting your 

 bait close to their mouths, and to see how they wiP 

 turn away from a bad or mutilated worm, but rapidly 

 seize, and apparently masticate, a good one : this 

 must be by either sight, smell, or taste. 



Mr, Rennie is of opinion that fish have not the sense 

 of sight in perfection ; but this must be quite erro- 

 neous. Watch a trout stream, observe the fish, lying 



