THE SONG OF FISHES. 
339 
the north shore of the Grulf of Mexico, similar submariue sounds 
have been remarked, but by what animal produced is at pre- 
sent unknown. Darwin, moreover, mentioned as occurring in 
the Rio Parana, in South America, a kind of Silwrus , called 
“ armado,” which is remarkable for a harsh grating noise, which 
it makes when caught by hook and line, and which can be dis- 
tinctly heard when the fish is beneath the water.* 
The most graphic and analytic description, however, of such 
music is that given by M. Dufosse, who thus describes his sen- 
sations when traversing in a fishing-lugger off the coast of 
France a shoal of Maigres ( Scicena aquila ), so closely packed 
together as to be literally “ cote-a-cote ” — 
“ Tout a coup et tandis qu’une multitude de sons myst6rieux, baroques, 
d’un charivari inoui, frapperont l’oreille du naturaliste, il se sentira saisi 
d’une sorte d’enivrement passager durant les courts instants duquel il 
aura bien de la peine a se defendre de quelques hallucinations auditives ; 
toutefois, redevenu observateur impassible, il ne tardera pas a constater que les 
parois du batiment qui le porte sont animees de mouvements vibratoires, et 
des lors il distinguera nettement, que c’est le tremblement physique qu’il 
ressent qui produisait le trouble nerveux auquel il a ete un moment en proie, 
et par suite il trouvera le secret du leger degre d’enivrement qu’il a 6prouve 
dans la triple nouveaute des sensations qui sont venues inopinement et simul- 
tanement envahir tout son etre : nouveaute de la surexcitation nerveuse 
resultant des mouvements de trepidation du chasse-maree ; nouveaute encore 
de la nature meme des sons etranges qui fascinaient ses organes auditifs ; 
nouveaute enfin du mode de transmission des vibrations sonores qu’il per- 
cevait a travers un milieu liquide.” Further on the noises are thus 
described: — “Ces assemblages de sons extraordinaires, bourdonnant comme le 
feraient un grand nombre de jeux d’orgues ” (shade of Charles Bab- 
bage !) “ qui seraient completement desaccordes, cacophonie d’une bizarrerie 
indescriptible, auxquels tous les Scienoides du groups auront fpris part,” &c. 
M. Dufosse has further been informed by some pilots, whose 
testimony he considered reliable, that a sea captain who was 
going up the Grironde, on hearing for the first time the sounds 
produced by numerous maigres in the neighbourhood of the 
ship, was thrown into a state of great alarm, supposing that he 
had sprung a leak in the hold ! 
Though phenomena such as those just described have been 
from time to time observed, wondered at, and noted by more 
or less competent witnesses, it was not until within the last 
fifteen years that any attempt had been made to inquire into 
their nature, and to investigate by patient and closer observa- 
tion, and by carefully conducted experiments, the organ or 
organs by which they are produced. Until quite recently, then, 
all had been merest conjecture. It is to two French observers, 
* u Naturalist’s Voyage Round the World,” p. 136. Loud. : 1860. 
