OF HARTING. 303 



pensated for. To the gorgeously coloured nest- 

 building little Stickleback (G aster ostens aculeatus], 

 which any person desirous of studying its very in- 

 teresting habits and possessing an aquarium, may be 

 glad to know is readily caught in any of our meadow 

 streams with a worm simply suspended by a thread. 

 The Loach (Cobitis barbatula), the Miller's Thumb 

 (Cottus gobio) \ we may add the Perch (Percafluvia- 

 tilis), the Eel (Angnilld), the Pike (Esox lucius), the 

 Trout (Salmo fario), the Carp (Cyprinns carpio), and 

 the Tench (Tinea vulgaris\ all of which, except the 

 trout, thrive in the South Garden Ponds, the Harting 

 Great Pond, and the Blackrye Pond, while the Trout 

 is found in the Engine Pond, the Mill Ponds, and the 

 streams they supply. In the autumn of 1858, the 

 Great Pond was fished, and in the following short ex- 

 tract from a letter written a few days after the event, 

 a casual allusion is made to the general result : 



"After a fortnight of unusual excitement and 

 fatigue, during part of which I have been breathing 

 an atmosphere redolent of fishy effluvia, I feel it quite 

 a relief to be able to devote a quiet evening to the 

 pleasure I have long anticipated of again writing to 

 you on a subject much more to my taste than my 

 recent occupation, although I have been gratified with 

 the sight of nine hundred fine carp, one of which was 

 of the extraordinary weight of twenty-four pounds and 

 a half; three hundred tench, more than a thousand gold 

 fish (from a puddle in the park), and at least a ton 

 weight of eels; not to mention a jack weighing twenty- 

 seven pounds and a half, and in the act of digesting two 

 carp, four pounds and two pounds weight respectively. 

 When I have added that nearly all the accom- 

 modating natives of the three villages temporarily 

 became ichthyophagi to do honour to the occasion, 

 three hundred of the finest carp having been sacrificed 

 by Lady Fetherstonhaugh, as a means to this end 

 I gladly wash my hands of the whole affair." 



