TROUT-BREEDING 99 



intended to convey by their exhibition was probably 

 something of this kind. " These common trout, 

 taken from the Avon and the Test, are far larger 

 than any wild edible creature produced by the manors 

 through which those rivers run. A 14-lb. trout 

 weighs as much as seven pheasants, fourteen part- 

 ridges, five rabbits, or two hares, it is not less 

 beautiful than the pheasant, and weight for weight, 

 contains more food than any game bird or animal, 

 all of which it equals or surpasses in flavour. Any 

 stream with feeders coming from sand or chalk-hills 

 will grow trout ; why do the greater number produce 

 few or none ? " Trout are not the only fish neglected. 

 Here is a y-lb. silver eel, one of the best of river 

 fish, from the humble little river Mole. Carp, the 

 common fish of German ponds, are almost unknown 

 on the country dinner-table in England. Readers 

 of Carlyle's Frederick the Great will remember that 

 the carp-ponds, with the waters run off, and a crop 

 of rye growing in the mud for the fish to feed on 

 later in the year, almost stopped the advance of 

 Frederick's left wing and artillery of the Prussian 

 army at the battle of Prague. As specimens of pond 

 carp, Buckland left casts of two one from Berlin 

 of 27 Ibs. weight, with scales as large as half-crowns, 

 and one of the same size from Haarlem Mere. These 

 round, blunt-nosed fish look like water-pigs, and are 

 of about the weight and shape of a three-months'- 

 old porker, minus the legs. They are mainly vege- 

 table-feeders, and would thrive in most still ponds 



