240 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



like nothing, I should think, which they can be in the 

 habit of seeing. This case differs entirely from any I have 

 remarked elsewhere, and it is to me as yet, I confess, a 

 piscatorial puzzle. A close analysis of the contents of the 

 pond, as concerns insects and weeds, would no doubt throw 

 some light on this interesting fact, which I hope some day 

 to be able to make, as it appears to combine the best sport 

 and the largest fish which is precisely the point we desire 

 to arrive at. 



" It cannot be doubted that the condition and size of 

 trout, as well as other fish, depend almost wholly upon the 

 supply of food, and I think I have shown that the particu- 

 lar kinds of food are also a great desideratum. Now, it 

 being known that particular kinds of weed are favorable 

 to the production of certain species of insects, what can 

 be easier when the soil is favorable to such a measure 

 than to transplant a sufficient quantity of these weeds, and 

 the larvae of the insects which will almost always be found 

 to abound in them, from one lake and from one stream to 

 another? For example, with respect to the gammari so 

 often noted, what could be easier than to transplant weed ? 

 This would serve as food for the large fresh-water mussel 

 found in almost all waters, and it would serve as food for 

 the gammari, which in turn would serve as food for the 

 fishes. It may be said, with regard to some lakes and 

 streams, that they are so gravelly and rocky, that the weeds 

 would hardly thrive in them ; but it is seldom indeed that 

 some nooks and corners do not exist, in or about the banks 

 of lakes and streams, where there may be found sufficient 

 soil, which, with a slight admixture of the natural soil, and a 

 judicious planting of these weeds, may not be made to grow 

 them to some small extent j and the weeds, once introduced, 

 will gradually increase year by year, forming their own soil, 

 and naturally producing those requsites which are the most 



