S3?: 



196 SEASON 1875-76. 



directly over the drain. The safety-screens retained all the fish 

 in the pond, so that the plugs could be drawn at any time, and 

 the ponds cleaned, or, if disease showed itself, any single pond 

 could be isolated by turning the directing-board, and discharging 

 the water into the drain (Figs. 145, 146). The water was led from 

 the catch-box past the fourth 20-feet pond, and onwards, to be 



FIG. 147 scale : 



used again as part of the supply to the lower ponds (Fig. 147). 

 A catch-box was also placed at the end of the fourth 20-feet, and a 

 10-inch pipe received the water from both boxes. Figs. 148, 149 

 are a diagram of the 20-feets in position, showing the arrangement 

 of catch-box, drains, and distributing-trough. 



The next work at Howietoun was the 60-feet pond. It was 

 dug below the fourth 20-feet, and is 60 feet long, 15 feet wide, 

 and 4 feet 10 inches deep. The pond was formed by laying 

 battens as sleepers on the bottom, and nailing battens as up- 

 rights. These in their turn were secured by tying back with 

 pieces of home wood to beech-trees cut in half and buried in the 

 bank as anchors. The danger in ponds built in this way is of the 

 sides collapsing when the water is suddenly withdrawn, as it is 

 once a year for cleaning and re-charring. Anchoring is sufficient, 

 but by far the best plan is to build such ponds in sets of three or 

 four, and tie the uprights of one to the next, and so on. A drain 

 was laid to the burn, and iron and sanitary pipes used, iron under 

 the pond and sanitary outside it. The battens on the bottom were 

 then covered with flooring, of which the tongues and grooves had 

 all been carefully re-dressed. The flooring was laid precisely in the 

 same way as an ordinary floor is in Scotland, driven with a heavy 

 hammer and drawn with nails. This makes an almost perfectly 

 water-tight job, and stands well if there are not many stone-fly 



