FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT. 89 



any appreciable inroad was made into their ranks plenty of 

 trout were caught, a.nd those of atakable size. At the present 

 time the trout ha.ve got the upper hand ; and this has been the 

 case for some years back. The piece of water referred to was 

 a two-mile length of river (similar, I may say, to such a river 

 as th3 Itchen), and when taken in hand in 1880 it was almost 

 bare of trout, and was swarming with pike of all sizes up to 

 171b. in weight. The few trout tha.t were in the water were 

 too " pike scared " to rise, and were useless for sporting pur- 

 poses. The first season's fishing (including netting) resulted 

 in the capture of seven very big trout, and 1,304 pike. The 

 same season the first lots of fry were planted. Next season 

 (1881) 52 trout were caught and 936 pike. In 1882, 132 trout 

 were captured and between 700 and 800 pike ; the exact num- 

 ber of pike was, unfortunately, not entered this year. In 

 1883, 250 trout and 400 pike were taken from the water. 

 Season 1884 saw the capture of 361 trout and 450 pike. After 

 tliis the number of pike rapidly decreased, and the number of 

 trout reached up to as many as 500 in one season. This truly 

 marvellous improvement in the fishery becomes even more 

 remarkable when one learns that the captured trout averaged 

 Ijlb. in weight ! In 1884, 300 eight-inch trout and a few hun- 

 dred yearlings were turned down, with a view of introducing 

 new blood ; but the whole of the former never grew to killable 

 size (one pound weight), probably owing to their being either 

 stunted two-year-olds, or possibly they were raised from im- 

 mature stock fish. All the stocking from 1880 to 1885 (inclu- 

 sive), with tha exception of these fish, was done with fry I 

 The fry were hatched from ova of wild fish, pure Fario, and 

 they were planted at proper ages to suit varying depths of 

 water and other circumstances. I am delighted to give pub- 

 licity to this work of Mr. Carrie's, and also to the following 

 very strong support of my theory re the value of artificial 

 redds, etc. : 



" To improve existing natural redds is, of course, possible," 

 says Mr. Come, " but small artificial redds formed off a river 

 must succeed if properly laid out where the nature of the 



