ICHTHYOLOGY. 17 



night, but that the fish have suddenly ceased rising just 

 two hours before dawn, and have remained quiescent until 

 dawn had quite broken. Perhaps further light might be 

 thrown on this topic by the careful observation of fish in 

 tanks. 



" Do Fish feel Pain V is a question which must often 

 suggest itself to the angler, and many must have often 

 wished that they could unhesitatingly answer it in the 

 negative. I think they may do so. Mr. Cholmondeley 

 Pennell, as learned a naturalist as he is an accomplished 

 angler, in a pamphlet published a few years ago, amply 

 demonstrated that fish do not feel pain, at least in the 

 same manner, and certainly not anything like to the same 

 degree, as warm-blooded land animals. A frog, which 

 is a cold-blooded animal, evidently feels little or no pain, 

 do what you will with him. You may open him, and 

 inspect the action of his heart, and when released he will 

 hop away apparently as happy as ever. You may vivisect 

 him in almost any way you like, and he seems not a bit 

 the worse for it than was the Jackdaw of Rheims for the 

 shower of ecclesiastical curses. Pish certainly seem to 

 feel no pain from hooks stuck in their mouths. Trout are 

 often taken with artificial flies attached to them, and a 

 jack, after being hooked and played and lost, will take a 

 bait again the same day. I have had instances of both 

 happen to me. In fishing Mr. Abel Smith's water, near 

 Hertford, a few years ago, I lost a trout of about 21bs. at 

 one of the waterfalls, and I took him with my fly in his 

 mouth about four hours afterwards ; and a similar occur- 

 rence happened in the case of a jack of 41bs., when I was 

 fishing the water near Mr. Ward's mill, at Stanwell, 

 Middlesex. It is all very pretty, but it is not true, that 



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