102 Gossip about Fish. 



than the progress of many fish, in shoals, which may result 

 from a community of impulse, quite distinct from companion- 

 able qualities. 



In Mr. Couches third volume, comprehending mullets, 

 wrasses, rocklings, flounders, soles, etc., we find many illustra- 

 tions of greater mental powers than fish are usually imagined to 

 possess. Thus, the grey mullet is singularly watchful against 

 restraint, and tries to leap over obstacles in preference to pass- 

 ing through them. Mr. Couch says, "In the port of Looe, in 

 Cornwall, there is a salt-water mill-pool of thirteen acres, that is 

 enclosed on the side of the river by an embankment, and into 

 which the tide flows through flood-gates that afford a ready 

 passage for fish to the space within. When the tide begins to 

 ebb, the gates close of themselves; but even before this has 

 happened, the mullets which have entered have been known 

 to pass along the enclosed circuit within the bank, as if seeking 

 the means of deliverance, and, finding no outlet, they have 

 thrown themselves on the bank at the side, to their own de- 

 struction." Mr. Couch adds, all writers agree in ascribing to 

 this fish great quickness of hearing, and it has even been sup- 

 posed that it is capable of the perception of particular sounds. 

 The Cornish historian, Carew, had formed a pond on a branch 

 of the Tamar, in which mullets were fed at regular periods, 

 and they were drawn together to the appointed spot at the 

 sound made by the chopping of their food. 



The carps (described in Mr. Couch's fourth volume), like 

 the mullets, can be brought together by sounds intimating that 

 their dinner is ready, and they seem to be fish of a highly in- 

 telligent character, with more than the usual fishy allowance 

 of brain. "According to Professor Owen, the average pro- 

 portion of the size of the brain to that of the body in fishes is 

 one in three thousand ; but in the carp, according to Blumen- 

 bach, it amounts to one in five hundred, which is the same as 

 is found in the ' half-reasoning ' elephant." Why the 

 elephant should be called " half-reasoning " we never could 

 understand, unless human vanity cannot bear the 'notion of 

 ascribing reason to any other animal than man himself. 

 Reasoning may be logically correct as far as it goes, and as 

 far as the materials at its disposal allow it to go, and then it is 

 as much ivhole reasoning in a fish as in a Newton, though the 

 results may be less grand. The disciples of old Izaak are 

 well acquainted with the cleverness of the carp, and when we 

 regard him as a highly-organized specimen of the finny tribe, 

 it is the more remarkable to find that he may — to use a 

 Paddyism — be frozen to death, and yet come to life again. 



Sir J. Franklin, cited by Mr. Couch, is the authority for 

 this statement. He says that in his voyage to the Polar Sea, 



