62 How to obtain it. 



regulate the water, yet the supply should not always be just the 

 same. It is not so in nature. There are freshests or spates which 

 | are often very beneficial to the fish. Now, we have the advantage 

 in a well ordered fish pond of producing these artificially, when- 

 ever desirable, and what is more, we can have the spate without a 

 flood and without fear of an overflow. Anyone who has seen an 

 artificial spate sent through a pond during dry hot weather in 

 July, would never doubt again the beneficial influence it had on 

 the trout. We know that in streams they often suffer very much 

 during droughts, and occasionally even die in numbers. What 

 a great advantage it would be in such a case to send down 

 an artificial spate occasionally, giving the fish not only additional 

 water, but taking care that that water was charged with trout food. 

 It could easily be done and would be an invaluable help, and I 

 venture to say it will be done before long. 



I shall never forget a case in which I was once called 

 suddenly in the month of July, to look at some trout in a pond 

 that had been almost deprived of its water supply during a long 

 drought. When I arrived I found but a mere trickle going into 

 the pond, where the sun's rays had heated it to a dangerous 

 degree. Not a drop was running out, and the water had fallen 

 considerably below the overflow level, owing to the loss by 

 evaporation and soakage. The trout were gasping on the surface, 

 and a crowd of them also in the same condition were about the 

 inlet. The case looked hopeless, but nil desperandum. The 

 pond was supplied from a mountain stream, and this stream, like 

 hundreds of its class, was almost dry. But it consisted, as most 

 mountain streams do, of pool after pool, and some of them were 

 of fair size. Obtaining a couple of men armed with crowbars, 

 spades, and pickaxes, I had them at work in a few minutes letting 

 off these natural water supplies. There was no difficulty about it, 

 as the stream bed consisted mainly of boulders and gravel, and 

 by shovelling away a little of the latter or lifting a boulder or two 

 a considerable amount of water was liberated, and in a few 

 minutes a small artificial spate was going merrily through the 

 pond. The fish revived at once, and thus a valuable stock was 

 saved from certain destruction. Had this not been done, at least 

 three-fourths of them, if not all, would have been dead in a few 



