2o8 



Hoiv to obtain it. 



Thy riches." That creatures hitherto looked upon as insignifi- 

 cant, should be made to play so important a part in the economy 

 of Nature, is at first somewhat startling.- Nevertheless the fact 

 remains, and the more we delve into Nature's hidden mysteries, 

 the more closely are we led up to Nature's God. 



The provision that has been made for the artificial feeding of 

 fishes, when man requires to use it, is truly wonderful, only 

 waiting development. From the way in which trout devour these 

 crustaceans, one would suppose that they like them better than 

 we do oysters, or they would not eat them shells and all, as they 

 do at every opportunity. 



That they (the crustaceans) are an important item to trout 

 fry there can be no doubt, and they seem to thrive under more 

 varied conditions than some other species. The finest are found 

 in water of the. highest natural temperature, other things being 

 equal, and some of the largest specimens were observed in a pool 

 the water of which registered 60 F. It was tolerably shallow at 

 the margin but shelving to deep water, and containing abundance 

 of water plants, and infusoria of many varieties. 



We now come to a very large family, the Arachnida, or 

 spiders, some of which live in the water. They are not so valuable 

 from a fish culturist's point of view, perhaps, as are some of the 

 crustaceans, and some of the foreign species 

 will even kill fish and suck their juices. The 

 smaller kinds known as water mites (Fig. 26) 

 are rather numerous. They are usually in 

 full activity of life in April, and they are just 

 the right size one would suppose for feeding 

 trout fry, but as far as we have observed, the 

 fry seem to reject them utterly. There are 

 brown, red, grey, black, and spotted ones, 

 but somehow fry, even when they get to 

 minnow size, do not seem to care much about 

 them. They vary in size, some of them 

 being about as big as dust shot, whilst others 

 are t-h e s j ze o f NO. i shot. They swim with 



* 



a beautifully even movement, their legs whilst 

 swimming resembling somewhat a wheel, or screw propeller. 



Fig. 26. 



Water M ites, enlarged. 



