According to one thoughtful and competent observer,[10] they can be frightened, they can be angry, they can endure pangs of jealousy, they can be excited by a spirit of curiosity. And though one may perhaps hardly go so far as to speak of “fishy” affection, shown by one to another, yet some faint reflection of maternal anxiety seems occasionally to exist.
[10] Romanes.
They also display a real enjoyment of life, a pleasure in “being,” a delight in playing with water and wave, and even a sportiveness, such as one might imagine to belong only to creatures of a higher grade.
On the whole, the brain of a fish is better developed than the brains of any other animals of low rank, excepting only that of the Cuttlefish.
Some instances have been known of tame fishes recognising, or seeming to recognise, human beings. It is open to doubt how far the “recognition” meant more than an expectation of something to eat, following upon certain familiar sounds.
Fishes good for food—these are and have been through ages by far the most important to man. Other kinds may be dangerous or interesting. But without the “Food-fishes” of the Ocean the difficulties of feeding mankind would be largely increased.
For they are always there. They come without exertion on our part. No sowing, no digging, no tending of the waters, is needed to bring forth the mighty harvest. Year after year, multitudes past imagination come into existence, and any number of them may be had for the trouble of taking.
All that man did in the past was his level best, by reckless destruction, to kill the goose which lays the golden eggs, to exterminate the creatures which are to him of so incalculable a value.
Of late years some steps have been taken in the other direction, some efforts have been made towards the preservation of fish and the culture of spawn. But much more remains to be done. The incessant use of line and net and trawl through centuries has thinned the multitudes of some species very greatly, and in the course of time they may even cease to exist.
That the harm done thus far has not been far greater must be ascribed to the enormous numbers of each kind, and to the vastness of those ocean-regions, where they may at any time retreat beyond man’s reach. For this we have to be thankful. It would be an ill day for us, on which the chief food-fishes should fail.