CARP AND tench: 275 



filled his pocket with spinach seed, conducted me to the side 

 of the moat. . We remained quiet for some tim.e, the better to 

 convince me that the fish would not come till he called them. 

 At length he called in his usual way and immediately the fish 

 gathered from all parts of the moat in such numbers that there 

 was hardly room for them to lie by one another.' 



The same sort of thing may be noticed in the waters of 

 some public gardens near Rotterdam. 



In these ponds the carp are also in the habit of following 

 visitors about, in expectation of food ; and one immense 

 fellow, with a side as broad as a flitch of bacon, and an appetite 

 that seemed insatiable, actually pursued us for nearly a hundred 

 yards along the side of the bank until our stock of bread being 

 exhausted, we were fain to try experiments with some paper 

 pellets, when he sailed off in magnificent disgust The fish 

 must have weighed at least 15 lbs. 



It is not to be supposed, however, from these instances, that 

 carp are the only fish which are capable of being tamed, or are 

 sensible to the influence of external sounds. At Sir J. Bow- 

 yer's, near Uxbiridge, Mr. Bradley tells us, there is, or was, a 

 pond full of tame pike, which could be called together at plea- 

 sure. Mr. Salter was acquainted with a person who for several 

 years kept, in a waterbutt, a perch, which came to the surface 

 for its food whenever the owner tapped on the side of the butt. 

 According to ^han, the chad was lured to its destruction by 

 the sound of castanets. Professor Renni states that in Ger^ 

 many this fish is still taken by nets hung with rows of little 

 bells arranged so as to chime in harmony ; and, without going 

 back to the story of Amphion and the Dolphins, or the old 

 Scottish harper, who, according to the ballad, ' harped a fish 

 out of the salt water,' we may find hundreds of well-authenti- 

 cated anecdotes pointing to the conclusion that fish have a very- 

 considerable perception of external sounds. It is only fair to 

 add that a number of striking experiments have been tried of 

 late years upon the trout, which would appear to lead to an 

 exactly opposite conclusion. .Possibly the explanation may be 



