120 A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK: 



The question of whether a stream should be 

 allowed to flow direct through fish-ponds is one 

 which has never been satisfactorily settled, some 

 pisciculturists being in favour of a stream, on 

 the grounds that it freshens the pond and brings 

 additional food to the fish, others thinking that 

 it only disturbs them, besides being open 

 to grave objections at flood-times. Captain 

 Salvin, a friend of the late Frank Buckland, gave 

 him a most interesting account of a set of fish- 

 ponds made during the reign of Queen Anne, 

 by Captain Salvin's great-grandfather. These 

 three ponds are fed by a stream " which is not 

 allowed to run through them, but is let in by 

 sluices at pleasure. The stream is conveyed by 

 an artificial watercourse outside, which is clearly 

 a wise precaution against their filling up with 

 sediment during floods, thus preventing an awful 

 amount of trouble and expense hereafter." 

 These ponds of Captain Salvin's are remarkable 

 for having been almost if not the first to possess 

 what is now termed a " collector," which he 

 thus describes : 



11 The deepest pait of the little pond (No. I, the fatten- 



