NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 145 



shoal places in the river which required very constant attention, the expense of which, 

 and the loss sustained by stopping the mills, exceeded, in the opinion of the town, the 

 advantages of the fish ; the business was neglected, so that for a number of years they 

 have been entirely cut off from the pond. Notwithstanding, some of the fish annually 

 return to the mouth of the river, urging a passage up, but they are decreased in number 

 and reduced in size. 



Dr. Barton has very justly observed, that " There is a vast chasm in the History 

 of the Fish ; a chasm, too, in relation to which I have always deemed the most interesting 

 part of animal natural history, I mean the instincts, or manners, or habits of animals. 

 How little do we know of the instincts of the fishes ! Forgetting that the element in 

 which they live precludes us from acquiring an easy or a rapid acquaintance with the 

 mores of the fishes, and not sufficiently modest to acknowledge their own incurious su- 

 pineness, the best naturalists have fallen into the error, that fishes are a stupid race of 

 beings ; that they discover very little of ingenuity ; and that they are in a great measure 

 strangers to that storge, or powerful affection, by which animals are so generally attached to 

 their young. I venture to assert, that very much of what has been said on these subjects, 

 is mere declamation, unsanctioned by enlarged observation or experience. My own in- 

 quiries have convinced me that we have detruded the fishes to too low a station in the 

 scale of animal intelligence and of storgal love." Discourse on Desiderata in Natural 

 History. 



Dogs have been trained for hunting and fowling. The falcon has been taught for a si- 

 milar purpose ; and the cormorant has been rendered useful in catching fishes. But I 

 believe, it is not generally known, that the Indians of the Antilles, had the art of taming a 

 species of sea fish, and employing them to chase other larger fish. Of this art, Oviedo 

 Gomara, and other writers, make mention. 



The species of fish which those Indians trained to chase large fish, as they train hawks 

 in Europe to chase other birds, was rather small, called by them, guaican, and by the 

 Spaniards, reverse Oviedo explains the manner in which they made use of this fish to 

 chase others. Clavigero's Mexico, vol. 2. 



After this, we certainly can have no hesitation in believing, that the same fishes return 

 periodically to the waters of their nativity for breeding, and pursue a prescribed, unde- 

 viating course. 



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