No. 33. [From Nature, Xorcmbcr 23 and 30, KJII.] 



FISH AND DROUGHT 



THE summer of the year 1911 will long be remembered for 

 its excessive heat and dryness. These were especially trying 

 to the inhabitants of streams and shallow lakes or ponds. 

 I had the opportunity of studying a remarkable instance of 

 this, which I think is worth recording. 



The Chateau of Marchais, with its magnificent domain, the 

 property of the Prince of Monaco, lies about 16 kilometres 

 east of Laon, in the department of Aisne, and is well known as 

 one of the best shooting estates in France. The sketch (Fig. i) 

 represents the park. It occupies a rectangle surrounded by 

 a ditch or moat, A, B, C, D, consisting of four canals, each 

 1250 metres long and 16 metres wide, and carrying usually a 

 depth of 1 1 metres of water. These canals form a continuous 

 sheet of water, five kilometres long, and there is a bridge, 

 a, b, c, d, over each of them. The country, though well-wooded, 

 is flat and peaty, and the level of the water in the ditch is that 

 of the water in the ground all round it. Like the ground-water, 

 it is subject to rise and fall according to the wetness or drym-ss 

 of the season. 



When I arrived on the morning of September 29, I observed 

 that the ditch was quite dry, with the exception of the small 

 tank or enclosure (/) for ducks at the lodge known as the 

 Porte Rouge, where entry to the park is obtained over the 

 bridge marked (b). Yet the water of the ditch is always full 

 of fish, principally carp, tench, perch, and pike. Now there 

 was nothing but dry mud. With the water the fish had entirely 

 disappeared, and without leaving a single dead one to mark where 

 they had before abounded. 



On the evening of September 29 a violent storm of wind and 

 rain broke, and it raged over the whole of northern Europe 



