93 



Eels are exceedingly destructive in all waters to which 

 they have access, and it is impossible to keep them out, 

 as they can go up the perpendicular sides of water gates 

 and possibly over the sides of the darn when wet with a 

 heavy rain. The only plan is to use eel-pots and keep 

 down their numbers as much as possible. They will 

 follow the fry into the smallest rivulets, and on one 

 occasion we saw an eel slash around in a little brook so 

 as to stir up the mud and foul the water, that he might 

 make sure of his prey which had become frightened and 

 was trying to escape from him. He finds his food by 

 sense of smell when the water is roily. 



As for goldfish, in the year 1865 we had one hundred 

 goldfish in a pond thirty feet long, twelve feet wide, and 

 from four feet deep to shallow places three inches deep. 

 We put 4,000 young brook trout in the pond, and in three 

 days the goldfish had eaten every one of them. The 

 little trout would hide themselves in the holes in the 

 stone wall, where they were chased by the goldfish, which 

 would lie at the hole for hours, watching for a trout ; 

 and when the trout made his appearance they would go 

 for him as a cat does for a mouse. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE HOLTON AND OTHER HATCHING 

 BOXES. 



One ot the most valuable, practical inventions in refer- 

 ence to the hatching of the eggs of the salmonidae was 

 made by Marcellus Holton, while in the employ of the 

 New York fishery commission. It consisted of a device 

 for utilizing the upward flow of water among and through 

 the eggs. It had been often noticed that trout sought as 



