FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT. 31 



Before proceeding further, I would like to make very clear 

 a point that has just occurred to me, and, consequently, may 

 also have occurred to the reader. I do not advocate bringing 

 the whole of our British waters under complete artificial con- 

 trol even if such a thing were possible. I ain far too keen an 

 angler myself to> dream even of a state of affairs that would 

 result in you and me knowing exactly what size fish we should 

 meet with in this or that water. I would not if I could 

 rob my brethren of the angle and myself ! of the glorious 

 uncertainty of capturing a twoi-pounder within a few yards of 

 where we havo just hooked and returned a small fish of per- 

 haps not more than a quarter of a pound. Let the cultivation 

 of such wa,tors be limited to the proper protection of the redds 

 and an occasional " stocking" when necessary. But we must 

 have ponds under complete control, or protected portions of 

 rivers, if we are to rear fish for stocking these wild, fascinating 

 waters with their little one here and 1 their big one there a few 

 yards away. Moreover, if I have made me a pond or two in 

 mine only meadow, I want those ponds to hold as good a head 

 of fish as possible; therefore, a pretty level lot becomes a 

 necessity. 



In Fig. 7 A is the pond, formed by banking up and damming 

 back the stream at B B ; the dotted lines c c show the original 

 bed of the stream, in what is now the pond, and D is the course 

 of the stream below ; at E E are horizontal box screens (to be 

 described presently) ; p is the controlling sluice for regulating 

 the height of waiter in the pond, and emptying it; and G is an 

 underground drain, through which passes the surplus water 

 to a convenient point and level below. Of course, the drain 

 may leave the pond at any convenient point, not necessarily 

 as shown. 



In Fig. 8 we are, still in " meadow-land," and I suppose a 

 series of ponds required on a limited length of stream, where 

 the fall is not sufficient to permit of a simple arrangement 

 like that of "lakes in the hills," to be described presently, 

 yet they are required to be independently and collectively 

 under complete control. In the drawing, A, B, C are a pond 



