38 A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK: 



his " Rural Sports," and another writer chimes 

 in 



" The perch an idiot, and the carp a wit." 

 Both the brain and the nerves of the ear are 

 very highly developed in the carp. Professor 

 Owen says that " the average proportion of the 

 size of the brain to that of the body in fishes is 

 one in three thousand ;" and Couch maintains 

 that " in the carp, according to Blumenbach, it 

 amounts to one in five hundred; this extra- 

 ordinary development in the carp existing also 

 in the portion of that centre of intelligence 

 termed the prosencephalon, or what most 

 nearly answers to the cerebrum, or seat of 

 understanding, in the higher animals." It is no 

 wonder, therefore, that it is seldom that a carp 

 allows himself to be deluded by the wiles of his 

 human enemies. Even old Walton, who ex- 

 celled in the angler's chief virtue, seems to have 

 been sorely tried by the " queen of rivers," for 

 he begins his instructions to his pupil anent this 

 fish in a manner which has something in com- 

 mon with Mrs. Glasse's famous receipt about the 

 hare. 



