178 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



thesis of near-sightedness. My opinion, founded upon 

 numerous experiments, is, that fishes see and hear as 

 well in and -through the medium of the water, for all 

 practical purposes, as the angler does through the medium 

 of the atmosphere ; the clearer and more rarified the me- 

 dium, the clearer and greater the range of vision in both 

 instances. 



In muddy or turbid waters the sight of fishes is neces- 

 sarily limited, as ours would be in hazy or foggy weather. 

 It is neither fair nor logical to presume that fishes, in 

 water, ought to discern objects in the atmosphere above, 

 any clearer or plainer than we can perceive objects in the 

 water, while standing on the brink. 



We are altogether too prone to judge every thing from 

 our own standpoint, and to attribute to our own clever- 

 ness results that in all probability depend upon other and 

 extraneous circumstances. Who, of us, could tell a skill- 

 fully tied artificial fly from a real one, beneath the water, 

 when its surface was ruffled by a brisk breeze, shadowed 

 by drifting clouds, covered with the froth and suds of 

 an eddy, or surmounted by the foam and bubbles of a 

 rapid ? 



Yet, there are those who contend, because fish fail to 

 detect this difference through the same obstacles to clear 

 vision, that they are of a verity near-sighted, and easily 

 fooled by the very poorest semblance of a fly or feathery 

 nondescript; but let one of these persons try a cast of the 

 best flies upon a bright, still day, when the water is per- 

 fectly clear and the surface like a mirror, and if he expects 

 to get a rise under such conditions, he himself must be 

 very near-sighted indeed. 



On the other hand, any one who has seen a Black Bass 



