HOWIETOUN PONDS. 



259 



netting the ponds this short arm is particularly useful. There is 

 usually over 1000 fish in each net, and if the net is hauled into the 

 arm a good current of water flows through it, and the operators are 

 not so much hurried over the spawning process. Too great haste 

 means bad impregnation as certainly as too little speed, and, what 



FIG. 182 scale 



is worse, might mean insufficient care in the selection of breeders, 

 especially if the fish-culturist was short of ponds, and had neglected 

 segregation. 



The water-courses of the 300-feets were laid out with the view 

 of exposing the water which had already passed through the 130- 

 feets to the atmosphere as much as possible. With this object 

 the longest path was chosen for the two outside ponds, and a 

 diamond was left in the centre as an island, round which the water 

 flowed to the centre 300-feet. The sides of the water-courses were 

 built of brick, and coped with black and white bricks on edge, 

 placed alternately. The plan is curvilinear, and wells, which the 

 fish freely use as sanatoriums, are inserted, one in each water- 

 course (Fig. 183). 



The dividing-box was made on the pattern of the one already 

 described (see p. 221). The water from the three 130-feet plank 

 ponds was brought in in three covered troughs, and the wastes 

 were led to the old course of the burn. 



On the 27th March 1879 the water was turned through the 



