FISHES AND FISHING. 119 



two other passengers laughed at, and joked him all 

 the way to town. It appeared he had persuaded his 

 friends to buy tackle and go out with him for a day's 

 fishing, he assuring them of excellent sport, whereas 

 none of the three had the satisfaction of having had a 

 nibble. This mode he adopted of obtaining fish is 

 called jocosely ** catching fish with a silver hook.'* 

 A lady who had probably heard this observation, but 

 did not know its meaning, one evening in company, 

 was boasting of the excellence of the rods, lines, &c. 

 of a relative of her's, and finished by asserting, '' that 

 he had amongst his unequalled tackle, a number of 

 silver hoolcSy which were sure to catch fish when 

 nothing else would do so !" 



Having endeavoured, concisely, to explain the ana- 

 tomy of the senses offish, and shown how acute those 

 senses are, it becomes necessary to consider and exa- 

 mine how these senses, or the organisation of the 

 brains of this class of animals, contribute to give some 

 of them apparently a species of intellect, or reasoning 

 power. It was believed from the time of Aristotle 

 up to a recent period, that man had the largest 

 brain of any animal, and thereby had the vast su- 

 periority over all other created beings ; further 

 research has proved this opinion to be erroneous, for 

 the proportion of brain to the body in some birds ex- 

 ceeds that of man, and several mammalia, and some 



