CAN FISH HEARP 
(Continued from page 145) 
[X gravelly rapids the case is differ- | 
ent. It seems that fish must hear 
everything that goes on in their own 
element. We can only surmise that 
the rough and tumble of rolling gravel 
and the friction of current forces must 
be a perfect bedlam to them, and in 
the roar of such traffic they do not 
catch the air vibrations so quickly, just 
as street noises to us may drown a 
scream or a pistol shot. At all events, 
it is evident enough you can hardly. 
frighten them with any noise at all 
on uneven, loose- bottomed, ripply 
shallows. 
O fine and susceptible is a fish’s 
organism that we cannot judge 
them by our own standards. Their 
powers of vision, of hearing, of smell- 
ing, of feeling atmospheric changes, of 
agitation at the approach of an unseen 
enemy, are far beyond our comprehen- 
sion. To what we can prove our com- 
monsense should add infinitely more. 
There is nothing I would not give 
them credit for, except, perhaps, know- 
ing the train I am coming by or under- 
standing the words I am certain they 
hear me utter when I get there. 
There is nothing incredible to those 
who know enough to know they know 
next to nothing. The following I had 
from the captain of a whaler: The 
abnormally excited behaviour of a 
whale they were chasing, and several 
others, puzzled the boat’s crew, he said, 
till an Esquimau, taking an oar and 
putting the end of it to his ear, ges- 
ticulated for silence. In a few minutes 
he shouted: “A ship!”. There was no 
ship to be sighted, and they thought 
him a little crazy. Presently a long 
line of smoke on the horizon made 
them change their minds. “It is well 
known,” said the captain, “that a 
whale detects the sound of a ship’s 
propeller a long way off, but that was 
an eye-opener for us, both as to the 
Esquimau and the whale.” 
Here is the simplest experiment any 
skeptic may conduct and should con- 
duct for himself. Let him select a 
quiet roach pool or corner of a lake 
three or four feet deep, and make a 
complete and perfect shelter for him- 
self, so that he can look well over the 
water and command a view to the bot- 
tom, and then leave it for a few days 
for the fish to get accustomed to it, 
and meanwhile keep it ground baited. 
Then let him take up his position and 
attract his fish with a little food. They 
will feed and hover around quite 
naturally, and he will notice that no 
fin or tail moves, except in a slow and 
slothful sort of way. Now, let him 
set up a more or less loud conversa- 
Page 173 



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