156 ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE 



nets should be limited to a certain size, so as to 

 render it impossible to sweep a river ; no angling 



NOTES. 



t 



in which they came from the old fish, for three, four, or 

 five months, and then produce a little diminutive animal, 

 incapable of self-protection, and surrounded by enemies of 

 every description, intent upon devouring him. I rather 

 wonder that, under so particular an examination as Mr. 

 Little's, it was not ascertained, either from him or the 

 other witnesses, what was the actual size of the fry when it 

 first appeared from the sand-bed. 



I should not have ventured to publish the extraordinary 

 anecdote which I have related, if my informant had not 

 offered to attest it upon his oath ; and he will do so at any 

 time. 



POSTSCRIPT. 



Sept. Iktlu — Having mentioned the above extraordinary 

 circumstance of the growth of the salmon pea in the dunghill 

 to a gentleman who has devoted a long life to the study of 

 natural history, he appeared to be greatly astonished. The 

 next morning he said to me, that he had been thinking of 

 what I told him almost the whole night, and he was con- 

 vinced that it was impossible to be true ; that the eggs must 

 have been those of a snake. Upon this, I made a point of 

 seeing the labourer who removed the dung, and to my 

 questions he gave the following answers: — That he perfectly 

 well recollected the circumstance before stated; at first he 

 thought the eggs mentioned to have been snakes' eggs, 



