43O Fish and Drought 



very cold, and I studied the canals both in the morning and 

 the afternoon. In the large pool in the north canal I found 

 the quantity of fish augmented, and I especially noticed that 

 there were many more large fish present than before, and 

 the average size of the fish was decidedly greater than on the 

 previous day; perch of at least 20 centimetres in length were 

 present. The bigger fish had probably started to bury them- 

 selves earlier than the smaller ones, and had buried themselves 

 deeper. I saw the big pike of the day before, and two others 

 of the same species, but very much smaller, had appeared. 

 One dead perch was floating in the pool, the first dead fish that I 

 had encountered. In the afternoon it seemed to me that the 

 average size of the fish in the pool was still on the increase. 

 The west and south canals presented the same appearance as 

 before. 



On October 3 the weather kept fair but cold. I went round 

 the park and found the big pool in the north canal much the same 

 as on October 2, the number of large perch having apparently 

 increased, but there was no new feature of importance. In the 

 course of my tour, after passing the Porte Rouge, I found that 

 the part of the west canal south of this lodge had begun to 

 collect water, which already covered the bottom, forming a 

 pool (n), extending to within a short distance of the south-west 

 corner. Under the water, which was perfectly clear, the light 

 grey bottom was still cracked and apparently unsoftened, and 

 there was not a trace of life of any kind. In the south canal 

 the bottom was generally dry, with, however, every here and 

 there pools of water (p) measuring about one metre across, and 

 in these also there was no trace of life. I learned that anglers 

 never fish in these canals, because they know that they will 

 catch nothing. 



In the afternoon I revisited the north canal, and instead 

 of following the big pool westwards, which promised nothing 

 new, I turned to the right and followed it eastwards towards 

 the north-east corner. I had not gone very far when I en- 

 countered a phenomenon of which I had already perceived the 

 possibility, namely, a premature resurrection resulting in wide- 

 spread death. This part of the canal was apparently dry, in 



