CAN FISHES HEAR?

Evening Post, Issue 128, 1 June 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

CAN FISHES HEAR?

I was sitting painting by the side of a large loch one still day in October. The shallow water at the margin was full of small fry of some sort, probably young perch. About two o'clock in the afternoon a shooting party made their appearance on a hillside distant about three-quarters of a mile. Their shots were frequent ; I could see the flash and smoke, and several seconds later the sound of the discharge came through the quiet air. At each report the fry in the shallows darted off into deep water, then drew gradually back towards the edge, to be startled again to flight by the next shot. This occurred seven or eight times in the course of half an hour, and there could be no doubt whatever that, whether these fish heard the report as clearly as I did, or less clearly, they heard bo distinctly as to be alarmed. Now, how many anglers ever bestow a thought upon precautions' against alarming fish by sounds? You may hear one who is scrupulously careful not to show himself along the shingle on his way to the cast. Or perhaps when you are working yonr fly skillfully over a glassy run where a pull may be expected at any moment, a friendcomes to the opposite bank and roars an enquiry acrods the river what luck you have had. You are obliged to roar back a reply. Again, how often it happens that your boatman, standing waist deep by the gunwale, will knook out the ashes from his pipe with a prolonged tap-tap-tap, which

r. must echo a significant warning to i- every dcn : zca in the quiet pool you >i are fishing. Sound will not travel i. through the grosser medium of water is it does through the atmosphere ; j # still, the ears of fish, being constructed to receive a sensation through , the vibration of water, are pro- . bably capable of far more distinct | impressions than human tympana ' would be under similar circumstances V — Sir Herbert Maxwell, in National J" Magazine. b •