ICHTHYOLOGY. 13 



sound — though here I fancy there is some confusion as 

 to the difference of sound being conducted over water and 

 through water — and hence fish get the benefit of it. But 

 here again, I am confronted with the undoubted fact that 

 trout have little perception of sound, as the iron-shod 

 soles of the anglers' wading boots " scrunch " over the 

 rocks and gravel, and any one who has tried the experi- 

 ment of dropping an iron chain into a river or pond, knows 

 that very little sound above is produced by its falling on 

 the stony bottom ; and thus, in one sense, it would seem 

 that water is a bad conductor of sound. But another 

 fact tells strongly the other way; only here noise is 

 made above and not under the water. It is the fact 

 that a smart stamp of the foot on the floor of a punt 

 will cause small fish to leap out of the water in all 

 directions many yards distant. I have tried the ex- 

 periment in the Thames many times when there has 

 been little or no ripple on some broad part of the river, 

 and I have seen small fish leap out as far distant as thirty 

 to forty yards from my punt. Professor Wilson, who 

 contributes a chapter on the " Physiology of Pish," to 

 " Ephemera's " Handbook of Angling, after remarking 

 that the ear of a fish, as contrasted with that of a land 

 animal, " is adapted to the rude oscillations of a denser 

 element," says, " fishes must therefore hear with tole- 

 rable acuteness, particularly such sounds as occasion a 

 vibration of the element in which they reside, for example, 

 an approaching footstep." I shall certainly not commit 

 myself to any strong expression of opinion on this "hear- 

 ing " question ; but I will venture to give this safe advice 

 to anglers, namely, that though it may not be necessary 

 to be as dumb as members of a Quakers' meeting, it is as 



