8 EXTRAORDINARY RAPID GROWTH. 



Adelaide Gallery, in the Strand, and since have become 

 inmates of the above-named Institution. When brought 

 to this country they weighed about one pound each ; but, 

 being confined in a very small space, and fresh warm 

 water daily given to them, agreeable to their natural ele- 

 ment, and regularly fed, the largest of these specimens of 

 Gymnpti has grown to the great weight of between forty 

 and fifty pounds, the smaller one to about forty pounds ; 

 and the cause assigned for this difference in weight is, that 

 the one fish was by nature the most powerful of the two, 

 and always claimed the lion's share of food thrown to them ; 

 and it is a fact worth noticing, that the largest fish of the 

 two has the greatest power in giving the electric shock. I 

 have wandered somewhat from my subject in describing 

 these extraordinary creatures ; but they have afforded me 

 the opportunity of showing what may be done by systematic 

 management in the feeding of fish, which is of more conse- 

 quence than the inexperienced reader and breeder would 

 suppose. 



I have seen trout taken from a stream systematically sup- 

 plied with food, seventeen inches in length, which would 

 pull down above two and a half pounds ; from an ill-stored 

 stream one of the same length drew no more than from one 

 pound and a quarter to one pound and a half : such are the 

 advantages of wholesome water and food regularly supplied. 

 Salmon of nine pounds weight will yield from 1000 to 1500 



