I suggest the following improvement in salmon rods. There should be no spare top for trolling or spinning, but merely a spare fly-top, which should be of bamboo cane rent longitudinally into three wedge-shaped pieces, then glued together, reduced to the proper tapering thickness, and strongly ringed and whipped. This spare top should be reserved for heavy work in rivers, in and over which there are rocks and trees, rendering the playing of a fish unusually difficult, and tackle of more than ordinary strength necessary. I have changed my opinion with respect to rods made entirely of rent cane or of any other wood rent. Their defects will always more than counterbalance their merits.

Trolling and spinning rods should be about twelve feet long. Those made of mottled East India cane are the handsomest and best I have seen. The above cane is sometimes scarce. The best substitutes are ash for butt, hickory for middle pieces, and bamboo cane for top-the latter stout and short.

RANK OF FISH IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 217

CHAPTER IX.

ON PISCATORIAL PHYSIOLOGY.

IN ORDER to clear up, for angling purposes, how far fish see, hear, smell, taste, and generally feel, I solicited one of my best friends, Erasmus Wilson, F.R.S., a well-known and accomplished anatomist and physiologist, to write me briefly his opinions on the subject. He obligingly complied, and the following is the useful result.

From the humble position of the fish in the animal kingdom, namely, at the very foot of the scale of the vertebrate series, in other words, the lowliest of that large group of animals distinguished by the possession of a spine, it may naturally be inferred that those higher attributes of animals which depend on the presence of nerves, and of a nervous system, present a corresponding degree of inferiority. Such an inference would be strictly true; for, whatever element of their construction we examine, whether their bones, muscles, vessels, nerves, or organs of nutrition, sense, or reproduction, all suggest alike the idea of inferiority as contrasted with the higher animals and man, but of exquisite beauty as compared

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THE FACULTIES OF FISH.

with each other, and considered in relation to the part in the great drama of life which they are called on to perform. The naturalist, however, would repudiate the term 'inferiority' as applied to the structure and organization of the fish-a sentiment in which we feel sure that the disciple of Walton will heartily concur; it is, in truth, simplicity, so far as the rest of the animal kingdom is concerned-perfection, in relation to its own position in the grand scheme of animated nature.

The faculties of the fish which depend on the nervous system are, Intellect, Sensation, Motion, and the special senses of Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste. Each of these faculties is presided over by a known part of the nervous system, such part being the material instrument by which the power is generated and directed. Hence a pretty correct inference with regard to amount of faculty may be deduced from structure alone, that is, from an examination of the size and qualities of the instrument; but, when to the information thus obtained we add the further knowledge which observation of the habits and instincts of these animals contribute, we find ourselves in possession of ample evidence whereon to frame a correct and sufficient judgment.

The Intellect of animals resides in the brain, in a part of the brain termed the hemispheres ; and these organs always bear an exact proportion

THE BRAIN OF FISHES.

219

to the degree of manifestation of the intellectual faculties. Now, the brain of fishes is remarkable for its small size; and, of the various parts of which it is composed, the hemispheres are the least. Hence we have good reason for assuming that, as intellectual beings, fishes do not merit a higher position than that in which they have been placed by the naturalist. A few instances are recorded which seem to exhibit a power of association of ideas on the part of the fish; for example, their approach to the margin of a stream or pool to be fed; but this can only be regarded as one of the humblest of the mental manifestations; and they would be as likely to advance towards an enemy as a friend if the position of the stranger corresponded with that of their accustomed feeder.

Sensation, like intellect, resides in the hemispheres of the brain, and the inference deduced from the smallness of these organs appears to be just with regard to the faculty in question. Fishes are as deficient in sensation as they are abounding in motion; but the two faculties have no necessary connection with each other; few of the motions of the fish are due to sensation, and almost as few to the will; therefore, motion alone cannot be taken as an index of sensation.

The mobility of fish is an obvious quality of these animals, and the instrument by which

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ORGANS OF THE SPECIAL SENSES.

motion is effected the largest in their whole economy. This faculty draws upon the brain only for the stimulus derived from sensation and will, both of which are, as we have seen, of insignificant strength. The apparatus of motion includes the spinal marrow and the greater part of the large and numerous nerves which proceed therefrom; and, in addition to this commanding power resident in the nervous system, a host of inferior agents, the muscles, by which the immediate phenomena of motion are accomplished.

The organs of special sense, namely, of sight, hearing, smell, and taste, are each provided with a vital and a mechanical apparatus. The mechanical apparatus of sight, the eye, or, as it is popularly termed, the eye-ball, or apple of the eye, is an optical instrument of great perfection. In man and in the higher animals, the eye-ball is very nearly globular, the deviation from the perfectly spherical shape being in favour of a greater convexity of the transparent front of the organ. In fishes, on the contrary, the breadth of the eye greatly exceeds its depth, and it is flattened in front to a remarkable degree, presenting, in fact, the form of a segment of a sphere in place of a perfect globe. It is obvious that this peculiarity of shape is less easily maintained than that of an entire sphere; hence, it is no uncommon thing to find the circumference