244 ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT FISHERIES 



walls are semi-transparent, so much so that the 

 embryo shows plainly through. Although delicate 

 in appearance, they are elastic and capable of sus- 

 taining great pressure, and an egg thrown upon a 

 flat surface will rebound like an india-rubber ball. 

 The economy of the extreme prolificness of the 

 game-fishes can best be understood when we 

 come to consider the host of enemies which thus 

 beset them in the first stages of their existence. 

 Nature is prolific in her waste, and a whole army 

 of nature's poachers have to be satisfied. So true 

 is this, that the yearly yield of the largest salmon- 

 producing river in the kingdom is computed at 

 about the produce of one female fish of from 15 to 

 20 Ibs. in weight, the produce of all the rest being 

 lost or wasted. 



A great deal of un-natural history has been 

 written concerning the otter. That it destroys fish 

 The cannot be denied ; but careful observation 

 Otter g 0es to show that eels and freshwater cray- 

 fish constitute a considerable portion of its food. 

 Otters are common in the Lake District, and the more 

 observant anglers and otter-hunters confirm this 

 view. I have lived all my life on the banks of a 

 famous trout-stream (the Kent) and have invariably 

 found trout most abundant near the haunts of the 

 otter. The otter destroys fewer fish than is gene- 

 rally supposed. This may appear a bold state- 

 ment, but it is a fact. It is confirmed by water- 

 bailiffs, otter-hunters and fish-poachers. Of forty- 

 five dead otters killed in hunting, in two only were 

 there the remains of fish food, and this consisted of 

 eels deadly enemies to trout streams or salmon 

 rivers. These forty-five otters were, for the most 

 part killed before six in the morning, and, conse- 



