OBAIGEND PONDS. 237 



is fed to the three-year-olds and four-year-olds. Two -year- 

 old fry do not care for it, and the older fish, if mature, are 

 fed on clams (Pecten opercularis) to improve the appearance of the 

 ova. While the foresters were finishing the mincing-house, the 

 navvies were engaged on a drain to empty the three 300-feets, 

 which had been surveyed and laid off about 50 yards below the 

 three 130-feets. This drain took many months' hard work. It 

 commenced near the old course of the burn, and ran due west for 

 about 80 yards. In one place the bottom of the drain was 

 nearly 20 feet below the surface of the ground, and several feet of 

 rock had to be cut through. But at last I got the cut through, 

 and 8 -inch iron pipes laid in the bottom. Three eye-pipes were 

 specially cast, and placed so that each eye came just clear of the 

 bottom of the slope of the bank in the deepest part of each pond. 



At Craigend, the two ponds in front of the house were emptied 

 by the 4th October 1877, and on the 5th I emptied the octagon, 

 in which I found 6 1 hybrids left ; these I transferred to the 

 Francis Box in the wood. The work of pumping the ponds at 

 Craigend dry was so heavy that I cut a drain parallel to the 

 100-feets, and deeper than the bottom of each, and laid a 1-inch 

 sanitary pipe, carefully cemented in the faticets, with a straight- 

 eye laid level towards the centre of the lower 100-feet, and a bend 

 leading to the centre of the upper 100-feet. From the bend 

 straight-eye pipes led, terminating in two lengths of iron pipe, to 

 the end flanges of which brass sockets were bolted, and elbow- 

 joints of the same metal fitted, turning easily in a perpendicular 

 plane parallel to the sides of the ponds. A large square stone was 

 laid in each pond below the elbow, and in these the brass sockets 

 were countersunk the depth of the flange. This steadied the 

 sockets. A deep square hole was also cut in each stone, and 

 an iron bar 1^-inch square was dropped in after the elbows 

 were placed in the sockets. A knob cast on the elbows rested 

 against the iron bars, preventing the elbows from slipping for- 

 ward ; and lastly, copper pipes soldered on to the elbows led to 

 a distance of some 9 inches above the water-level of the ponds 

 when full. To empty the ponds, all that is necessary is to turn 



