26 The North Country Angler. 



ments have been made in fish-ponds ; some fed 

 by river water, some by clear fluent springs; into 

 which the young fry have been put at about five 

 or six months old, that is in September and Oc- 

 tober, reckoning from April, when they come 

 out of their spawning beds, at which time they 

 will be six or seven inches long. And though 

 there has been little difference in their age and 

 size when put into the pond ; yet in eighteen 

 months after there has been a surprizing change. 

 I have seen a pond drained ten months after the 

 fish were put into it, which was in July, when 

 they were about fifteen months old ; at which 

 time some of them were fifteen or sixteen inches, 

 others not above eleven or twelve. This was 

 done only to satisfy the Gentleman's curiosity : 

 but when the pond was drained eight months 

 after, in March, when they were almost two 

 years old ; some were twenty one, or twenty-two 

 inches, and weighed three pounds or more; others 

 were about sixteen inches, and a fourth part not 

 above twelve. I do not know what we can attri- 

 bute this difference to. It could not be either 

 in the food, or in the water, or the weather; they 

 faring ail alike in these. But if I may be allowed 

 my own opinion ; perhaps some of the fry may 

 have been the spawn of those that were only 

 seventeen months old, which is the soonest that 

 any of them spawn; others of parents twenty- 

 nine months, or two years and a half old; and 

 others a year older. This difference in the age 

 of the parent t routs, may, I believe, occasion the 

 difference in the size of their breed 5 otherwise 

 I cannot account for it. 



