THE SENSES OF FISHES. 19 



who have passed the grand climacteric and are getting 

 old and learned and, in many cases, lean as well. Learn- 

 ing seems to render mankind lean also, and the "sock 

 dolager " of the stream rarely maintains his aldermanic 

 outline when his education is at the meridian. His 

 seven or eight summers have filled him full of suspi- 

 cion, and he knows precisely the difference between 

 even the most artfully imitated fly and the real Simon 

 Pure. Before now I have caught specimens of the fly that 

 such a fish has actually been taking, and by the aid of 

 the magnifying lens and the closest study, have selected 

 the exact colors for the imitation nay, more, the exact 

 size and shape of the insect has been duplicated. And 

 to what purpose ? Deftly have I, with throbbing pulse, 

 cast that fly over the grand old patriarch poised in mid- 

 stream ready for any emergency, only to see him sail 

 calmly toward it, examine it, and then turn tail on it, 

 saying, just as plainly as if he spoke in the eloquent ver- 

 nacular of the glorious English language, " See you d d 

 first." Ugh ! the intellectual accomplishments of the 

 more than one "beastie" of that kind make me weary 

 when I think of them ! 



I particularly recall one old fellow that annoyed me 

 for three mortal years, till I became almost monomaniac. 

 He took up his quarters close to the buttress of a rustic 

 bridge which spanned the stream, and in clear, bright 

 weather you could easily watch his movements from day- 

 light till dark if you had a mind to do so. Just so long as 

 I would blow, from a pea-shooter, fat, large, green drakes, 

 so long would he come up with his huge whip lips smack- 

 ing out, plop ! and take them. On the other hand, just 



