SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS. 77 



rivers, we shall be great gainers by restraining their 

 vagrancy. If we place them in accessible positions, 

 where at any time we can lay our hands upon them 

 if we secure them from the attacks of otters, seals, and 

 porpoises we may, in almost every country, have 

 lakes like Lake Wenern, yielding thousands of valuable 

 salmonidae, if not true salmon. The Irish Board of 

 Fisheries transferred artificially-reared salmon-fry to a 

 sea-pond at Kingstown, in the hope of raising them to 

 maturity. They increased in size, but gradually dis- 

 appeared, having been devoured by crabs, conger-eels, or 

 water-rats, with which the place was infested. Mr Ffen- 

 nel informs us that he will repeat the experiment under 

 more favourable circumstances, and is confident as to 

 its success. 



In Scotland we have about 180 miles of canals. 

 Why are they fishless, when they might be easily 

 stocked with many valuable species offish? Why do 

 the Water Company, owners of the Compensation Pond 

 among the Pentland Hills, not try to swell their annual 

 dividend by the introduction into their capacious reser- 

 voirs of the species of salmon so abundant in Lake 

 Wenern? In order to induce a private proprietor to 

 do what a water company may not have the spirit to 

 attempt, we suggest a locality admirably suited for the 

 experiment. 



If our readers have ever travelled by rail from Edin- 

 burgh to Perth via Fife, they doubtless remember the 

 little Loch of Lindores, when approaching the estuary 

 of the Tay, and at the distance of two or three miles 

 from Newburgh. Within half an hour's journey from 

 the populous towns of Perth and Dundee, and distant 

 from Edinburgh and Glasgow not more than two and 

 four hours respectively, such a locality has every ad- 

 vantage for carrying out the experiment we suggest. 

 As a result of attention to pisciculture, it may be rea- 

 sonably hoped that our rivers shall teem with the noble 

 salmon j that our lakes and streams shall be stocked 



