126 NATURALIZATION. 



subject, the Baronet under date of February 21, 1853, writes 

 me as follows : 



"The short history of the smelt is this. In March, 1847, 

 I sent a boat round to Rochester, and there I bought- two 

 hundred full-grown smelts^ of which upwards of seventy died 

 on their voyage round to Charlton. I sent one hundred 

 by the Brighton Railroad to Hay ward's Heath, and thence by 

 a cart to Searles. Six were put into the pond at Searles, 

 and the remaining ninety-four reached Pilt-Down Pond 

 safely. The pond at Searles is now full of large smelts, 

 numbers have been taken out of it, and I eat of them 

 when down there only last month, at which time they 

 were full of roe. And what are supposed to be smelts, 

 have been seen by my gamekeeper m Pilt-Down Pond in 

 shoals ; but I have not yet drawn a net through that pond 

 which, as you know, is large and deep fine enough to take 

 anything so small as a smelt." 



