FISH-CULTURE. 101 



for miles for a suitable site, and at last fixed on Howietonn, on the 

 Loch Coulter burn, which is regulated by a sluice on the loch, and 

 under perfect control. The water too was of the most suitable 

 character. 



The fry had been several months in the 9-feet pond on the 

 Grey Mare's Tail stream before they escaped, and I had fed 

 them on raw rabbits' liver. I found a sprig of water-cress which 

 had rooted in the gravel kept the water sweet ; for wherever there 

 is gravel there is dirt, and every little thing that tends to cleanli- 

 ness is of importance ; I laid great store by that plant of water- 

 cress ; it grew rapidly, and the fry used to shelter in hundreds 

 below it ; but one day I took a friend to see the fry. He had been 

 long in England, and acquired a taste for water-cress, and, before I 

 knew the plant was in danger, he had eaten some, and pulled oft' 

 most of the rest. Never show fish to visitors, at least without 

 taking extraordinary precautions. One never knows what harm 

 they may unwittingly do : they may move a sluice, or open a 

 valve, or poke a stick through a fine screen, or feed the wrong 

 fish, or frighten the tame ones till they refuse to come to their 

 meals ; for trout, to thrive, must be fed regularly and with judg- 

 ment ; in short, the less trout are disturbed the better. 



My first experiment in carrying fry was made in May, when I 

 took about a couple of hundred of the Swiss fry to Mayfield, where 

 they were placed in a small pond under half an acre in the gai'den 

 of the late Provost Russel of Falkirk. The journey was only some 

 10 miles in a dog-cart, yet I thought it necessary to change the 

 water when half way, not knowing that the water fry are reared 

 in was much safer to travel in. Now- a-days yearlings are sent from 

 Stirling to Cornwall without change of water and without loss. 



These fry afterwards grew to average 2 pounds in weight, a 

 wonderful growth in so confined a space for a fish which inhabits 

 deep lakes like Geneva. 



A few weeks after the 9-feet pond upset I took the remaining 

 fry, numbering 117, and turned them out in Loch Coulter. Nine 

 years afterwards one of these was taken, or rather knocked on the 

 head, weighing 7 pounds, and measuring 33^ inches. Old age I 



