Trout, however quick sighted they may be, are like all the finny tribe,
supposed to be incapable of hearing, in consequence of the density of
the element in which they exist. Water has long ago been proved to be a
non-conductor of sound, and if fish are possessed of any faculty of the
kind, it must be the dullest imaginable. From the horny construction of
the palate, their taste cannot be acute, and their sense of smelling
(judging from the medium by which all odours are conveyed to them,)
must be peculiarly defective. Taking the above suppositions to be
correct, it is of course clearly apparent that they must be guided
solely by the eye in the selection of their food; for instance, when
fish are stupefied or fuddled as it is termed, I do not suppose their
olfactory organs are affected by the berry or drugs, used to intoxicate
or kill them. I am persuaded, that small balls of paste or bread would,
if offered to them at the same time, be devoured at precisely the same
rate as those prepared with unguents or drugs.
The formation of fish is peculiarly adapted to water, through which
they glide with the greatest facility; their motions being regulated by
the fins and tail; the tail indeed being to the fish precisely what a
rudder is to a ship. The air bladder in fish is another wise provision
of nature, by means of it they can remain for a long time under water;
still they must from time to time take in supplies, for if during a
severe frost the ice be not broken on ponds, the fish therein would
perish for want of air. Some fish are much more tenacious of life than
others; Roach, Perch and Tench, have been conveyed alive, for stocking
ponds, thirty miles, packed only in wet leaves or grass. One thing is
quite certain as regards all fish, viz., that they live longer out of
their natural element in cold than in hot weather. A clever invention
for the transport of fish has come under my notice; an account of this
machine may prove interesting to some persons, and therefore I insert
it.