APPENDIX 421 



this purpose I have designed and constructed dams in the 

 beds of fishing streams in Australia, South Africa, and 

 Europe, and it is an important thing for all riparian owners 

 to remember that however insignificant a stream may be, 

 so long as it has a fairly regular current, it can be improved 

 and in many cases made into a most fascinating trout 

 proposition. Rivulets which are looked upon merely as 

 ditches can, with a very small expenditure of money and 

 time, be so improved as to be capable of carrying a very 

 considerable head of sporting fish, and it is therefore worth 

 while for those who possess water of any description in the 

 land they own or occupy, to consider whether the improve- 

 ment of such streams might not be of commercial as well 

 as of sporting value to them. 



To show the importance of the above remarks I insert a 

 letter which I received in 1909 from some friends with 

 whom I had stayed in Hungary the year before. Although 

 one of the streams passing the castle appeared to contain 

 the possibility of being made into a good fishing proposition, 

 it was too rugged, too shallow, and too much swept during 

 the springtime by the melting of the snows, to hold more 

 than a moderate amount of fish. The letter speaks for 

 itself as to the improvement which I suggested and 

 designed : 



" The dams which you suggested and designed were 

 built last autumn, and they held well against the spring 

 torrents, only one being washed away, and I think this 

 was done by the loosening of a huge boulder on one 

 side of the stream. 



The stream now holds a very great number of fish, 

 and of a much larger size than those we had when you 

 stayed here. My brother caught forty-two trout the 

 other day in some of the pools nearest the house ; 

 the largest fish was if pounds." 



