3i2 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



Sutherland. It is rarely met with also in Inverness- shire ; and 

 yet it would be very desirable to have it acclimatized, for the 

 purposes both of feeding trout and accommodating the angler, 

 throughout those well-watered districts. In the extreme North, 

 on the banks of the Thurso and the Naver, the variations of tem- 

 perature are not, as is generally supposed, such as would affect 

 this fish in the least ; indeed, some years ago, on talking with 

 Mr. Horsburgh, at that time his Grace the Duke of Sutherland's 

 factor, at Tongue House, on the practicability of introducing 

 perch into some of the superfluous lakes belonging to the Reay 

 territory, he mentioned to me, as a notable fact, that the tempe- 

 rature in that quarter is usually, during winter, four degrees higher 

 than it is in the vicinity of Edinburgh. 



In the minnow, I think, a fair subject offers itself for intro- 

 ductory experiment, in the way of transmitting alive some of our 

 fresh-water British fishes to New Zealand, or other of our 

 colonies, adapted for its reception. From what I know of its 

 capability of sustaining life in a confined state, I consider it 

 practicable, using very simple means, to keep in healthy condi- 

 tion a stock of minnows, say three or four dozens, during a three 

 months' voyage, on an allowance of four gallons of waterier diem, 

 which water, after they have had the full benefit of it, might be 

 used with perfect safety for other purposes. I have known a 

 stock of the above amount kept in a sleeping-apartment for more 

 than a twelvemonth, and that in a wash-hand-basin, into which 

 rain water from a cistern was admitted, by the drop, at the rate 

 of thirty or forty drops per minute, and drawn away in the same 

 proportion, through a small orifice leading into a waste pipe at 

 the bottom of the basin, which, I may add, was provided with a 

 wire covering, in order to prevent the minnows from leaping over 

 its edges. On a similar plan, the transportation of this little fish 

 might, I think, be conducted, precautions being taken in the con- 

 struction of the receiving jar or basin, to prevent the effects of 



