THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 101 



YEN. But, master, do not trouts see us in the night ? 



Pise. Yes, and hear and sinell too, both then and in the 

 day-time : for Gesner observes, the otter smells a fish forty 

 furlongs off him in the water : and that it may be true, seems 

 to be affirmed by Sir Francis Bacon, in the eighth century of 

 his "Natural History," who there proves that water may be 

 the medium of sounds, by demonstrating it thus : " that if 

 you knock two stones together very deep under the water, 

 those that stand on a bank near to that place may hear the 

 noise without any diminution of it by the water." He also 

 offers the like experiment concerning the letting an anchor 

 fall, by a very long cable or rope, on a rock, or the sand 

 within the sea. And this being so well observed and demon- 

 strated as it is by that learned man, has made me to believe! 

 that eels unbed themselves and stir at the noise of thunder ; 

 and not only, as some think, by the motion or stirring of the 

 earth, which is occasioned by that thunder. 



And this reason of Sir Francis Bacon, Exper. 792, has 

 made me crave pardon of one that I laughed at, for affirming 

 that he knew carps come to a certain place in a pond, to be 

 fed, at the ringing of a bell, or the beating of a drum ; and 

 however, it shall be a rule for me to make as little noise as 

 I can when I am fishing, until Sir Francis Bacon be con- 

 futed, which I shall give any man leave to do.* 



* That fish hear, is confirmed by the authority of late writers. Swammer- 

 dam asserts it, and adds, that "they have a wonderful labyrinth of the ear for 

 that purpose." See Swammerdam on Insects, edit. London, 1758, p. 50. A 

 clergyman, a friend of mine, assures me, that at the Abbey of St. Bernard, near 

 Antwerp, he saw carp come at the whistling of the feeder. H. 



[With respect to the organs of hearing, and the power of hearing in fish, I 

 consulted Mr. Erasmus Wilson, one of the most eminent anatomists and phy- 

 siologists now alive, and the following is his opinion : " There is nothing in. 

 the exterior head of the fish to indicate that it is provided with an ear. In, 

 the higher animals, the mechanical apparatus of hearing consists of an internal 

 and an external portion : in fishes, the internal portion alone exists, and is 

 hardly inferior in perfection of form and structure, to that of creatures placed 

 higher in the animal scale. The nerves distributed to the organs of hearing 

 are of large size, and the vital apparatus, or portion of brain, from which the 

 former proceed, is considerable. There exists, however, this important dif- 

 ference between the organ of hearing of terrestrial animals and fishes, viz., that 

 the ear in the former is organized for the reception of the more delicate vibra- 

 tions of the atmosphere, while in the latter it is adapted to the rude oscillations 

 of a denser element. We may make this difference apparent by the following 

 simple illustration. The impulse occasioned to the air by the ticking of a watch 

 is so weak, as to be indistinctly heard when the watch is brought close to the 

 ear ; but if we convey the watch to a greater distance from the ear and press 

 it against the teeth, we hear the ticking with remarkable distinctness. In the 

 language of science, solid and dense bodies vibrate with greater intensity than 



