10 THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER. 



element* is partly due to the fact that light, like sound, 

 on penetrating water suffers an alteration, both of the 

 rate of progress and the direction of the rays. Refrac- 

 tion enables the fish to see an approaching or moving 

 object, even when a projecting bank or overhanging rock 

 or other substance intervenes. Mr. Eon aids illustrates 

 this by a familiar scientific experiment with a coin and 

 vessel of water, by which the former, when placed in 

 the bottom of the latter, is seen at an acute angle, when 

 the side of the vessel intercepts a straight line between 

 the coin and the eye of the spectator. We have known 

 cultivators of domesticated trout, who, being unacquaint- 

 ed with the laws of refraction, have attributed this to 

 various other causes. 



SENSE OF HEAKING. That trout are not wholly de- 

 void of this sense is now a well established axiom. There 

 is nothing about the exterior of the head of a fresh-water 

 fish that would indicate that it is provided with an ear. 

 Our leading physiologists and anatomists assert, never- 

 theless, that fish and other aquatic creatures have the 

 internal organ in a state of perfection. In animals of 

 higher grade the mechanical apparatus of hearing con- 

 sists of two connected portions, external and internal. 

 Fish appear to have the internal part, which is in direct 

 communication with the brain. The organs of hearing 

 possessed by terrestrial animals are designed for the 

 reception of the more delicate vibrations of the atmos- 



* A few summers ago, when fishing for black bass, using a small gray 

 and black palmer as a point fly, I made a cast at the tail of a shallow 

 reach, just above an old fish weir. The water, for a stretch of at least 

 fifty yards, was not more than two feet deep. As my fly touched the 

 water, a whistle from a fishing chum attracted my attention, and I 

 glanced up stream. At that moment I saw the swirl of a bass thirty 

 feet away, and immediately after the wake, as the fish "struck a bee- 

 line" for ray fly. The pluck was instantaneous and sure, and in a few 

 moments a two-pounder was creeled. This incident convinced me that 

 the sensa of sight in fishes, when exercised in their natural element, Is 

 much greater than that with which they are credited. 



