20 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



hunting and shooting, has nothing to say against fishing . 

 Perhaps it is one of the " sins he is inclined to. 



And this leads me to make a remark or two on the 

 Tenacity of Life in Pish. " What is life ? " is a puzzling 

 question in reference to all animals, but especially so as 

 regards fish. Where does it reside — what is its seat in 

 fish ? " In the heart or in the head ? " or where ? This 

 is a matter concerning which physiologists and ichthyo- 

 logists have much to investigate. Here is one instance 

 out of many which might be adduced of the tenacity of 

 life in fish — in this case in perch. Last year I caught 

 half a dozen of these fish at Maidenhead, ranging from 

 i lb. to 2 lbs. On getting ashore in the evening my fisher- 

 man, following my directions, took them from the punt 

 well, gave each one a sharp rap on the head, as is usual, 

 with the thick handle of his well-net, scaled them from 

 head to tail, cut them open from one end of the belly to 

 the other, and thoroughly cleared them of their gills and 

 every part of their viscera.- They were then put in a fish- 

 basket, which, when I got into the train at Taplow station, 

 was placed in the netting above my head. When I was 

 about half-way on my road back to London I heard and 

 saw a movement in the basket. I opened it and found 

 the perch alive, and one which I took in my hand 

 struggled like a fish which had only been a short time out 

 of the water. I made some remark about " muscular con- 

 traction," and closed the basket. When I got home, 

 about two hours and a half after the fish had been 

 killed, three of them were still alive — scaleless, gilless, 

 bowelless ! The section of an eel waltzing in a frying- 

 pan hardly eclipses this. In a number of Hardwicke's 

 Science Gossip, about twelve years ago, there was a 



