76 FISH HATCHING. 



readily kept off the spawning-beds, and that 

 a lad placed upon each of such localities 

 during the short period of ' nature's pro- 

 cess ' would serve this purpose. This, I now 

 regret to be compelled to say, would be 

 wholly inefficient. Let those who think 

 otherwise repair forthwith to Penton Hook 

 (by-the-by, what has this beautiful locality 

 done to the makers of maps, that it should 

 be left entirely out of nineteen out of twenty 

 of the charts of the Thames 1), and he will 

 find his work already cut out for him. The 

 grayling are now spawning there, and can be 

 seen by any one approaching them quietly in 

 a boat, upon the side of the Hook, which 

 empties itself into the main river ; and there 

 likewise is a flock of swans (literally the debit 

 for the credit) totalling up the whole, and 



