Sense of Hearing. ' 101 



Take this, for example, from Mr. Hugh Owen, in "Land 

 and Water:" 



" It is exceedingly doubtful if fish possess the faculty of hear- 

 ing, in the ordinary sense of the term. Mr. Buckland has ac- 

 curately described the nature of the sensation they do possess, as 

 vibration. There cannot be a doubt that fish have no possible 

 conception of either vicinity, direction, or distance of the vibra- 

 tory disturbances they receive. A distant vibration disturbs a 

 shoal of fishes as much as a near one; and fish feeding eagerly 

 at the bait will be alarmed and dispersed by the beat of a, steam 

 vessel a mile off. All the stories of fish coming to be fed at the 

 sound of a bell or of a whistle are, of course, fables. Such 

 sounds made in the air will not communicate vibrations to the 

 fish beneath the surbace of the water. They assemble only be- 

 cause they see a figure, and are accustomed to be fed upon such 

 occasions." 



No angler or fisherman of experience and observation 

 can be made to believe such specious and questionable state- 

 ments as the above. He knov^s better. 



As fishes live in a denser medium than terrestrial ani- 

 mals, and one that more readily transmits the waves of 

 sound, we should naturally expect to find a corresponding 

 difference in the construction of the organ of hearing. 

 The internal ear of fishes differs only in degree, not in kind, 

 from that of the higher animals; they, of course, have no 

 external ear, nor is one necessary in so dense a medium as 

 water; but for this reason it is the fashion to say that 

 they can only hear vibrations communicated through the 

 medium of the water or the shore, the " vibrations " mean- 

 ing considerable " jars " or " shocks." 



" The ear of fishes lies close under the roof of the skull, and 

 •is thus easily accessible to the waves of sound, which are con- 

 ducted partly through the operculum (when present), and partly 

 through the gill slits or spiracle. As we pass to the higher ani- 



