18 WATER STOCKED BEFORE LAND. 



mon cannot reach that height in less than two leaps, at the 

 least ? 



These remarks will, 1 trust, lead my readers to consider 

 this subject with attention : for, as I have said before, I 

 look on the welfare of our fisheries as of national import- 

 ance. It may be a bold thing to say that the land is not 

 more capable of producing food than the water ; but, how- 

 ever heterodox an opinion it may seem to be, I cannot 

 help holding it, and I am borne out, I believe, by natural- 

 ists and religionists too : for, according to the Bible, the 

 waters of this world were first populated by living crea- 

 tures, and afterwards the lands. 



It is a curious fact, also, that fish in spawning have their 

 favourites ; but as the male favourite can only give his 

 attentions during the process occasionally, the female is 

 attended by many males, which is a wise provision of 

 Nature for insuring a larger brood. During the spawning 

 season many contests take place among these competitors : 

 the heavier fish has always the advantage, and only gives 

 way to the smaller one when his milt is exhausted, although, 

 at the spawning season, the whole water is charged with 

 the fluids necessary for impregnation of the eggs of the 

 breeding fish ; Nature has so beautifully arranged her work, 

 that no two sorts of fish spawn at the same period, either 

 in rivers, streams or ponds. One species of fish indeed 

 follows the other in rapid succession, showing that Nature 



