12 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



majority of practical anglers feel a very strong conviction 

 that fish, and especially trout, have a very keen vision ; 

 and we must not forget that trout are able to distinguish a 

 fly long after evening has shaded off into night. 



There seems to be a similar difference of opinion among 

 men of learning and men of practice in reference to the 

 Hearing of fish. Cuvier says of fish, "Living in the 

 realms of silence, hearing would be of little use ; con- 

 sequently their ear is reduced to its simplest form, en- 

 closed in the bony walls of the head, deprived of external 

 auricle and internal cochlea, which must prevent them 

 from being aware of any variety of sound." Mr. Ronald, 

 who had an observatory built on the banks of a trout 

 stream for the purpose of noting the habits of the fish, says 

 that repeated experiments of firing guns near trout when 

 only a few inches under water had no effect on them, and 

 therefore comes to the conclusion that anglers need not 

 fear indulging in friendly chat and merry laugh. To him 

 agrees Stewart, and also Stoddart, who says, " They have 

 no sense of hearing whatsoever." Per contra, not a few 

 good naturalists maintain that fish have an acute sense of 

 hearing, Professor Wilson, for instance, and John Hunter, 

 the physiologist ; the latter of whom says that fish are 

 visibly affected by the firing of a gun— a remark also 

 made by Jesse, in Gleanings in Natural History. It 

 seems also to be an established fact that fish in a pond 

 may be trained to come to a person when called by the 

 sound of a bell, or of music, or of the human voice. 

 Probably the solution of the question lies in the theory of 

 vibration — though of course all hearing is by vibra- 

 tion—or as perhaps it might unscientifically be called, 

 "concussion." Water is said to be a good conductor of 



