Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

114 ARISTOTLE THE FIRST SCALE-READERstriking the opposite bank. Two of us lying hidden in thegrass observed from different spots.The gun was fired eight feet, four feet, and three feet abovethe surface of the stream, which varied in breadth from eightto ten feet, and in depth from sixteen to nineteen inches. Itwas fired into the air and into the opposite bank (struck fromfour to two feet above the water) in a direct line above differentfishes, lying either singly or in shoals from five to nine inchesfrom the bottom in small pools or runs sixteen to nineteeninches deep. Care was taken to fire up stream, to prevent thetrout being startled by the flash of the cartridge.In no case did the trout take the very least notice, or giveany sign of having heard the explosion or felt the concussionof the shot on the opposite bank, composed on three occasionsof alluvial soil and on two of rock. Never once did a fishmove or go down : in fact, in one of the experiments over asingle well-grown trout, the fish was rising again to the naturalfly in less than thirty seconds after the discharge of the gun.iAristotle almost certainly learnt dissection when young.His father belonged to the Asclepiads, an order of priestphysicianswho are believed to have practised dissection andtaught it to their children. The son's extensive knowledge ofthe internal parts of mammals, birds, and fishes probablyresulted from dissections. Mr. Lones names forty-nine animalsand fishes which from the trustworthiness of the definiteinformation imparted were (he holds) certainly dissected. Ofthese some five are fish.To the question whether Aristotle ever dissected the humanbody, the answer after examining the evidence availablemust, I think, be in the negative, for three reasons. Firstafter describing the external parts of the human body hestates that the internal parts are less known than those ofanimals, and that we must, in order to describe them, examinethe corresponding parts of animals which are most nearlyrelated to man.Second : his many mistakes—such as in the position of the^ The experiments conducted by Alfred Ronalds and recorded in hisfamous Fly-Fisher's Entomology, London, 1862, had similar results.