232 CAN FISHES HEAR? 



heard the call of a partridge nor the shrill of a cicada. 

 For him such sounds do not exist. Two others present 

 when I made the experiment could hear the note created 

 by 35,000 vibrations per second. I myself am sensible of 

 no sound higher than that caused by 12,000 vibrations; 

 but then my ears have been in active service for threescore 

 years. 



Seeing that there is such wide variation in the sensi- 

 bility of human ears, it seems rash to set a limit upon the 

 sounds of which the ears of other animals may be sensible. 

 For all we know, or can know, the rush of a shoal of 

 mackerel may be as audible in submarine circles as the 

 sound of wings in a flight of wildfowl in aerial regions ; 

 nor would it be safe, I think, to affirm that the auditory 

 functions of fishes are performed only through that which 

 appears to be a specialised auditory chamber. The vibra- 

 tions of such a dense medium as water may be conveyed 

 to the brain through other channels. At all events, this 

 matter of the hearing powers of fish seems to be one in 

 which the researches of the laboratory and the museum 

 may be checked with advantage by careful observation of 

 the behaviour of living animals in their natural haunts. 



Certain observations of my own have convinced me 

 that fishes hear that is, are sensible of the vibrations 

 causing sound be their auditory apparatus what it may. 



First, as to fresh- water fishes. In the month of October 

 1873 I spent a long day painting on the shore of Loch 

 Ken in Galloway. The weather was typical of St. Luke's 

 summer at its best, perfectly calm and bright, with just 

 that refreshing tinge of sharpness in the air to distinguish 

 the season from the lassitude of July. My easel was set 

 up close to the water-edge, and the shallows were crowded 



