The Country Gcntlematis Magazine 



475 



POND FISH. 



WE make the following extracts on 

 " Pond Fish " from a communica- 

 tion of Mr Frank Buckland, Inspector of 

 Salmon Fisheries, to the Ti7ncs : — 



A correspondent asks if I can recommend 

 any new fish for our English ponds and 

 lakes. I answer I will recommend — firstly, 

 '•'great lake trout" {Salmo ferox). For 

 several years past I have received, about 

 Christmas day, large consignments of the 

 ova of large lake trout — the young fish are 

 just visible twisting about inside the egg — 

 from the lake of Neuchatel in Switzerland. 

 I have had the honour of being requested to 

 undertake the stocking of the Obelisk Lake 

 in Windsor Great Park with these fish. 

 This lake formerly held nothing but coarse 

 fish. The water, under the superintendence 

 of Mr Menzies, was let oft" and the mud 

 allowed to remain dry some weeks. A little 

 house was built close to a spring of pure 

 water in the park, and for the last five years 

 v/e have hatched out in this house thousands 

 of great lake trout. TheresL^'c ^'s that there 

 is now a goodly number of these fish in the 

 lake, and they have been found palatable and 

 good for the table. We have already bred 

 from fish now in the pond that came over as 

 eggs packed in damp moss. 



Secondly, I advise the trial of that beauti- 

 ful fish the " Salmo fontinalis," or American 

 brook trout. Four years ago I received from 

 an eminent American fish-culturist a small 

 tin box, packed in sawdust, containing ova 

 of these fish. They throve and prospered, 

 and I have now some 15 or 20 specimens of 

 " Salmo fontinalis " in the fish nursery — 

 would it were twice as large ! — in my museum. 

 Some of these fish appear to be nearly three 

 pounds in weight. They are too precious to 

 handle. I hope, nevertheless, to breed from 

 ■ them this winter. In the tank with them 

 are several great lake trout, handsome, fine 

 fish, brothers and sisters to the Windsor 



trout. The attendant has orders to feed the 

 fish at the request of the visitors. Their 

 food is pounded ramp-steak and biscuit 

 powder, r'd it is a glorious sight to see my 

 scaly beauties jumping clean out of the water, 

 and making the water boil again with the 

 swirl and lash of their tails as they rise to the 

 food. They feed best towards evening, and 

 they tell me better than a barometer when 

 the weather is about to change. 



Thirdly, there is a fish common in Germany^ 

 r d I am told, frequently served at table in 

 Berlin, the " Zandr," " Perca Lucio Perca," 

 or pike perch. In appearance this fellow is 

 half pike, half perch ; he has teeth even more 

 formidable than the pike. There is a stuffed 

 specin-en of this fish in my museum, lent me 

 by Mr T. R. Sachs, Hon. Member of the 

 Piscatorial. Soc'ety, who caught it in Germany 

 with rod and hue. This "pike-percb" 

 would thrive well in our ponds and lakes, 

 and would be better eating than pike ; but I 

 should be ve-y sorry if this ravenous rascal 

 got into the rivers and injured my friends the 

 salmon and trout. 



Fourthly, the " Gold Schlei " or " Golden 

 Tenel " has now been thoroughly acclimatized 

 in this country, and the credit of this must 

 be given to my friend Mr Higford Burr, of 

 Aldermaston Park, Reading, A lady, fishing 

 the other day in the squire's lake, hooked 

 but lost, a " gold schlei " that must have been 

 over 2 pounds in weight. This is a most 

 beautiful fish. There are several living speci- 

 mens in my museum. They like stagnant, 

 weedy ponds, where there are no jack or 

 perch. 



Fifthly, there is the " Silurus glanis," the 

 " Sheat fish," or "Wels." This is common 

 in Central Europe. They are an eel-like 

 fish, much resembling the burbott of the 

 Trent. Sir Stephen Lakcman brought over 

 five or six of these fish from a tributary of the 

 Danube near Bucharest, I took them down to 



