94 FISH CULTURE. 



pound to a pound and a quarter. On the "Wick it 

 would be an ordinary fish ; indeed, they are not con- 

 sidered fair takeable fish under a pound and a half. 

 They are often caught of four and five pounds, and 

 I have known them to run up to seven or eight or 

 even ten pounds ; and this in a small stream, little 

 more than a good-sized brook, is a most astonishing 

 size ; for not only do these fish acquire this unusual 

 w r eight, but they arrive at it very rapidly indeed. 

 I have had many opportunities of knowing how they 

 will increase under favourable circumstances, as one 

 of the fisheries on the stream belonging to a friend 

 of mine was on one or two occasions almost de- 

 stroyed by bleach and tar water some forty or fifty 

 brace of fish being all that were saved : none of 

 them were over two pounds, and yet, in two years, 

 many of them had grown to six and seven pounds' 

 weight. 



Taking the Wycombe fish as a breed, I may say, 

 that they are the heaviest and thickest fish, for their 

 length, it has ever been my lot to see ; while the 

 colour of the flesh of a good fish, instead of the ordi- 

 nary pale pink of a really well-conditioned trout, is 

 often of a deep red, much redder, indeed, than that of 

 salmon. On the other hand, the Chess fish are not 

 particularly handsome, shapely, or well coloured. 



