Reason and Instinct, 



6437 



the first time it is offered, and as obstinately rejected —however perti- 

 naciously presented to them — on all subsequent occasions, if the 

 cheat have been safely detected at the former trial. Similar intelligence 

 is displayed also in another line. Almost all the fish which may be 

 taken with a bait, whether natural or artificial, seem to feed on with 

 perfect indifference, although sheep or cows or other quadrupeds are 

 standing conspicuously, or feeding, on the bank of the stream or other 

 water containing the fish ; but if the angler displays himself carelessly 

 and conspicuously, the rule is that the fish he wishes to capture will 

 not take his bait ; and it is a rule that does not admit of many ex- 

 ceptions. The clearer the water the more need to fish fine and far 

 off ; the higher the bank, the more necessity to get to its bottom, and 

 by no means to make a public spectacle of yourself on its edge. Nay 

 I have even thought, in some of my angling experiences, that my 

 pointer dog, if he advanced a few paces in the direction in which my 

 flies were thrown, effectually rendered all my skill to no purpose, while 

 half a dozen sheep quietly feeding in the same place would have made 

 scarcely any difference ; and this certainly evidences a distinct power 

 of comparison as possessed by the scaly tribe. No doubt, in the case 

 of the artificial fly, rejected after experience once had of its ficti- 

 tious nature, the impression produced by it on the mind of the fish is 

 evanescent : it may be taken in the same place by the same fly the 

 next day, or alter discoloration and re-clearing of the water, and 

 possibly even with a precisely similar fly sticking in some part of its 

 mouth, but this simply proves that its memory is bad, and does not in 

 the least degree affect our argument. Again, in ascertaining and 

 selecting, and maintaining by force of arms, if necessary, — very likely 

 using those means for the purpose of ejecting a former occupant of 

 the position best calculated for furnishing a good supply of any coveted 

 food (an established habit of divers fishes, which every angler, who 

 knows even the rudiments of his science, is not slow to avail himself 

 of, particularly in waters which are familiarly known to him), — fish 

 manifest a principle of action which is clearly not instinctive, but 

 depending on observation and experience, and therefore intelligent. 

 The same point is strangely, though painfully, illustrated by the shark, 

 which follows the course of the slave ship with inveterate pertinacity ; 

 or, it may be, the other ship in which a mortal sickness is raging and 

 consigning daily victims to the deep. 



The next step higher brings us to the Reptiles; among them — with 

 different degrees of comparative variation, as before — we find, on the 

 whole, a larger proportionate brain, and its constituent parts somewhat 



