South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-06-23
Do Fishes Think.

A WRITER in Al The Year Rouad cives
some interesting facts on this point. He
says:
Birds and beasts think. Why shouldn't
fishes also Ihink?
a knowing old pointer is sent
mt the turnip-ield with q shocking bad
snot, ne soon arrives at his own conclu-
sions. Regarding the sportsman with a
IooK Oh contempt, he sets him down as a
very poor stick on finding shot fred after
snot without bringing down a bird, and
thinks 1t is not worth taking the trouble
to point any longer for such a muff.
When Jenny Wren has half finished
a nest she looks at it critically, and thinks
to herself No, this won't do. The twigs
WoL't support it properly; it will tumble
On n side She begins another, and
when that is half done, she looks at it, and
after reflection says, That won't do eth
er. The foundation is good, but the situa-
ton is much exposed Silly little short
sight d thing that 1 was, l did not notice
the foot-path close at hand, on which
6irds-nesting s~choolboys go to and fro
so she begins a third, and finding it salts
factory in every respect-support, situar
ton, shelter-she finishes it, and fills it
with her tiny brood.
In like manner, when you drag the lake
in your park, or the pond in your pasture,
1or the purpose of tasting a dish of stew
ed carp, you surround your 'finny tribes
with a circle of network, till escape from
II seems impossible. But look at the fine
fellow with his snout Just out of the wa
Ter, smelling at the corks that float your
nets. He thinks he has me- says Cypria
nus, to himself, and is settling in his mind
with what sauce he will eat me. l wish
he may get mep Then, going back to
make a better leap, he makes a rush to the
front, clears the net as clearly as the win
ming horse at the steeple- chase clears the
last hurdle, and initiating human diploma
lists who wish to avoid punting in their
appearance, forthwith takes to his bed
IN the mud. = : = The tails of cells
prove that they are acquainted with at
least one of the mechanical powers. NJ.
LIE Paute, the conservator of the Bots de
Vincennes, one day had the fancy to put a
number of tiny cells into IN aquarium con-
tanning a population of very small salmon
A short time afterwards the eels were all
gone. What had become of them? Had
the salmon eaten theml 1t was not I'M
likely.
ITO make sure, he put a certain num-
Der of each in a bell-glass of water, which
he covered with a plate and then reversed,
so that the glass of water stood on the
plate. By this arrangement all escape
seemed prevented. Not so, however. After
trying in vain with their heads, the little
eels inserted the tips of their tails into the
narrow chink between the glass and the
plate, and so squeezed themselves out
backwards. They knew the consequences
OF forcing in the thin edge of a wedge.
"The roach practises a system of mutual
instruction. On the banks of the Loir-
please not to confound lie Loir with la
Loire-there stands an abbey. Opposite
the abbey, in the midst of the meadows,
some cold springs of purest water break
out, and, uniting, hasten to join the Loir
in a broad, shallow, chilly stream, which
is known in the neighborhoodas the Cue
Froid, the Cold Ford, and is the resort of
whole shoals of magnificent roach. Now
fish have their perversities, as well as men;
and not a single angler, for miles round
about, could ever get a fish to take ahook
in the Gue-Froid. One June morning, NJ.
De la Blanchere resolved to try, employ
ing a mode of fishing unknown to those
parts, and consequently unknown to the
fish of the place.
EVERY kind of fishing was practised
there except fly-fshing, which determined
him to make the experiment, with a fine
kitchen blue-bottle stuck on the barb of
his hook. Scarcely had it touched the
water before one, two, three, ten, twenty,
fifty roach passed, m afterth other, into
his basket, until it made his shoulders
ache. He returned as proud-well, as
Lucifer. But nobody would believe he
had caught that in the Gue-Froid.
"The only way to convince the incred-
ulous was to take them with him, one by
one, and by revealing the secret, enable
them to have the same success, which he
did.
"The first time, he and his friend had a
less abundant catch, than when he tried
the trick alone. Nevertheless, the sport
was not bad. They each Of them took
some thirty roach Everybody was now
convinced, as well they might'be.
Next day he returned to the Gue-Froid
with fourteen companions. He got six
roach; nobody else got anything.
"The day after, twenty anglers went to
work. Everybody's share was-exactly
nothing at all. The roach had completed
their education.
"Al fish, therefore, are not absolute
fools. But we should know much more
about fish than we do if every angler was
a savant, which would become oppressive
to the reading public, or if every savant
were an angler, which might be harder
lines on fishes than they really deserve"