HABITS OF FISH. 257 



seen those that weighed two ounces in June, by hav- 

 ing fine food and water, weigh six in August. The 

 spawn that run up the cool streamlets into meadows 

 where the water is always fresh and filled with 

 worms or grasshoppers, will treble their size in two 

 months. There is another curious fact about trout 

 and pickerel as well as some other species of fresh 

 water fish — their size will vary in proportion to the 

 magnitude of the pond or lake they inhabit. Thus 

 you will find in two lakes in Massachusetts, lying side 

 by side — one, a half a mile round, and the other three 

 miles, the same fish differing altogether in size. In 

 the latter you will take a great many pickerel weigh- 

 ing three and four pounds, and now and then one 

 much larger, while in the former the average weight 

 will be from eight to eighteen ounces. 



THE WOODS ON FIRE. 



Last night witnessed a scene of sublimity that 

 baffles all attempts to describe it worthily — for the 

 forests all around were a mass of surging, tossing, 

 billowy flame. I have seen the woods on fire upon 

 Long Island, when the flames traveled so rapidly 

 that a man on horseback could scarcely, at an easy 



