144 Transactions. 



The fish in Locli Levcn, they saw from that table, seemed to 

 average about a pound, and he was assured by anglers that from a 

 pound to a pound and a half was considered good weight. In 

 Loch Kindar — to take a local example — we had fish weighing 

 from three-quarters to one pound pretty freely taken. They some- 

 times reached 1| lbs. or 2 lbs. ; but if a 2 lb. fish were taken from 

 that lake, he thought it would be pretty well talked about in 

 Newabbey. He had heard of one five pounds weight being taken. 

 But we could take fish and by artificial cultivation grow them up 

 to 4 lbs. or 5 lbs. quite easily. Fish taken from Loch Leven had 

 been grown up to 9 lbs. without any difficulty. Several years ago 

 he turned into a Lancashire reservoir some Loch Leven trout fry, 

 Avhich attained a weight of from 3 lbs. to 4 lbs. in three years' 

 time, or really in two and a half As to the identity of the fish 

 there could be no doubt. He made inquiry as to the food which 

 they had been getting, and he found the reservoir was completely 

 choked with little shell fish. Some of the trout, on being dis- 

 sected, were found to be gorged with them. Again, he had another 

 case in the Dalbeattie reservoir. Some fish which were turned in 

 there were taken two years after If lb. and up to 2 lbs. weight, 

 which was a rate of growth far beyond the natural growth of 

 trout. He had for years maintained that fish, like cattle and 

 poultry, could be materially improved by careful selection and 

 judicious breeding ; and he was convinced that in course of time 

 we should see remarkable results in this direction. Li the case of 

 animals and birds we had certain races of monstrosities developed. 

 The fantail pigeon, for example, was really a monstrosity or 

 deformity. So it was wath the other fancy pigeons, all of which 

 had been produced from the wild rock dove which frequents our 

 rocks and caverns. With fish similar results were being produced. 

 A particular kind of fish was just now being sold in London, he 

 believed, at a guinea each. They were really little gold carps. 

 You bought them in little glass globes at these enormous prices, 

 simply because they were deformed, and had curious double tails, 

 which were arched over. They might call them fan-tail fish. The 

 name of telescope fish had been given to them — he did not know 

 why. It was found that these fish had formed a race of their own, 

 their young inheriting the double tail, hunchback, and deformities 

 of the vai'ious fins. In the case of the char of Windermere (the 

 Salmo Alpimis) we had a very striking result. The lecturer 

 exhibited a very fine cast of one, coloured after nature, which had 



