35 



BOTTOM OF PONDS. It matters very little of what ma- 

 terial the bottom is composed. Anything mud, clay or 

 moss is good, except gravel, and this is bad, not from 

 the nature of the substance, but because the fish 

 will spawn on it and the eggs be lost. Sometimes 

 a person will wish to construct a pond in a place where 

 there are springs, or to dam up the water and make a 

 pond in a springy place. Under such circumstances it is 

 a good plan to fill the bottom entirely with gravel, as the 

 fish would spawn there in any case. For such a pond 

 make the borders very shallow, so that the little fish 

 may run up into the shallow water and escape from the 

 large fish ; or have the pond so arranged that after the 

 fish have spawned they may be removed. Thus the 

 eggs will hatch out and the little ones grow without dan- 

 ger. When the next season of spawning comes the lit- 

 tle fish ma} be removed into another pond and the old 

 ones let in again to spawn. Such a pond is good for 

 any one wishing his establishment to run itself, as with 

 a little care he can raise many fish in it without much 

 trouble. But the gravel must not be smaller than a 

 hickorynut, and from that to the size of a butternut. 



Very often the bottom of a pond is porous and absorbs 

 the water as fast as it runs in, so that there is hardly any 

 running from the proper outlet. If you are short of 

 water and wish to use all you can get tor another pond, 

 it is best to cement the bottom. If you have no further 

 use for the water, it makes no difference how it goes off, 

 that is if there are no holes in the bottom large enough 

 to let the fish escape, and the water keeps up to its pro- 

 per level. Weeds or mosses of any sort are not necessary 

 at the bottom, and if the supply of water is not large 

 they will speedily become a nuisance. The quantity of 

 Trout food which they produce is of no account in an 



