144 TRANSACTIONS. 
The fish in Loch Leven, 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 14 Ibs. or 2 Ibs. ; but if a 2 1b. 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, 
which 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 13 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. In 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 with 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 various fins. In the case of the char of Windermere (the 
Salmo Alpinus) we had a very striking result. The lecturer 
exhibited a very fine cast of one, coloured after nature, which had 
