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TJie Country Gentleniaiis Magazine 



]\Ir Burr's, and they had a pond all to them- 

 selves. When the pond was let off the squire 

 and myself waded about almost up to our 

 necks in the mud for hours, but we could not 

 find the Silurus. I expect the rascally herons 

 have taken them, or, may be, they are in the 

 mud still. These fish grow to a gigantic size. 

 In the month ot October I examined the 

 skin and head of one of them, caught with a 

 hook and line in the Upper Amazon, by Mr 

 La Mert, who has just returned from that 

 country. He has also given n\t an electrical 

 eel — dead, unfortunately. This grand 

 Amazon Silurus when caught was nearly 7 

 feet in length, and he has a mouth big 

 enough to swallow a moderate-sized baby. 



Sixthly, the " Peacock, or Paradise fish " 

 from Ning Po, in China. I have two pairs 

 alive in my museum. Mr Carbonnier, of 

 Paris, first bred them in Europe ; they made 

 a nest, but the father fish ate. all the eggs. I 

 shall know how to manage him better next 

 time. The Paradise fish are as yet much 

 too dear to eat. There must be, I am sure, 

 plenty of fish in the paddy fields of China 

 that would live well in this country. I only 

 wish I could go to the Celestial Empire in a 

 Hansom cab. 



I am not at all sure but that the eggs of 

 our indisrenous "fresh water herrings." the 



" Pollan " of Lough Neagh and other Irish 

 lakes, the " Powan " of Loch Lomond, in 

 Scotland, and the vendace of Loch Maben, 

 near Locherbie, in Scotland, would not thrive 

 in our lakes. The fish themselves are " bad 

 to carry," but the ova might be taken arti- 

 ficially in thousands at the proper season. 



They would do well, were it not for the 

 pike, in such places as the lake at Blenheim 

 Palace ; and I am happy to say that his 

 Grace the Duke of Marlborough takes the 

 greatest interest in fish culture, and is making 

 efforts to stock his beautiful lake with 

 Neuchatel trout. 



It is not impossible tliat the common smelt 

 or sparling — the fish that smells like a 

 cucumber — would live in clear and deep 

 lakes. Mr Yarrell records that Colonel 

 IMeynell, of Yarm, Yorkshire, had great suc- 

 cess with smelts in a freshwater pond that 

 had no communication with the sea. I am 

 often asked where yearling trout, salmon 

 trout, &c., can be purchased to turn out. 

 Mr Parnaby, of Troutdale Fishery, Keswick, 

 hatches and sells many thousands every year. 

 Mr Parnaby is now on his road home with 

 living '' black bass " and " white fish " from 

 the American lakes. If these fish will breed 

 in this country, they will be a great addition 

 to our pond fish. 



END OF VOL IX 



