CRAIGEND. 185 



In all future distributing-spouts the cuts were replaced by 

 circular holes bored with a cutting-bit, with an adjustable cutter, 

 to cut from 1- to 3- inch holes. This bit is, I understand, an 

 American invention, and is so useful in practical fish-culture that 

 to facilitate others obtaining it I sketch it. Fig. 133 is a sketch 

 of the moveable centre-bit. 



CRAIGEND. 



The work here was chiefly in the digging and construction 

 of ponds in front of the house. These ponds were merely 

 dug out of the ground. The upper one was finished by the 7th 

 December 1875. No drain was cut to run it dry, and when it 

 had to be emptied it was necessary to pump the water out. The 

 water was taken from the overflow of Craigend dam, and a red- 

 clay pipe led from the le^^creen in the wood under the public 

 road, and through under the approach to the house. 



The leaf-screen was a modification of the one at Middlethird, 

 but as it had to be laid in the bottom of the stream there being 

 no dam, and it being very dangerous to make one, as the stream 

 often rose 5 or 6 feet in a few hours, and in summer occasionally 

 failed entirely, the little dribble that ran for the three dry months 

 would have been seriously reduced if any attempt had been made 

 to gain a head by damming. So the screen had to be modified to 

 suit, and the experience I had gained from the inlet to the dam at 

 Craigend came in useful. There the water closed the screen when- 

 ever it rose ; here the problem 

 was to keep the screen clear in 

 all waters : and it was solved by 

 placing the screen at an angle 

 to the stream, so as to create an 

 eddy when the stream rose. This 

 was done successfully, the situa- 

 tion being chosen at the foot 

 of a rocky fall. FlG - 



The leaf-screen discharged into a sluice-box, so that the flow 

 to the ponds could be regulated to some extent, although the 



