108 PIKE AND BLACK BASS 



and other fish, and the water was run back in Sep- 

 tember. In November a consignment of one hundred 

 yearling bass was received from Germany, where these 

 fish are artificially reared. They measured from three 

 to four inches long, and only one out of the hundred 

 had died on the long journey. 



The pond was drawn in April 1895. The net was 

 not satisfactory; it had no bottom leads and no end 

 poles, so the catching of fish was extremely pro- 

 blematical. The first haul produced nothing but two 

 fine trout, which had no business to be there. They 

 must have harboured as fry in the rivulet which feeds 

 the pond, while the latter was dry, and must, therefore, 

 have been the same age as the bass. The second haul 

 was more successful. In spite of numerous entangle- 

 ments with snags and stones, which deranged the net 

 so that any fish of ordinary intelligence might have 

 swum under it, six bass in lusty condition, with fine 

 olive-green backs and white bellies, were drawn ashore. 

 They were not large not of a size to be risked in the 

 lake they are destined to populate, which swarms with 

 pike. They weighed little more than half a pound 

 a piece, or not more than half the weight of the trout, 

 their equals in age. Still, there they were, having 

 escaped all dangers from cormorants, herons, and, still 

 more deadly, eels. 



A year later, in April 1896, we drew the pond again, 

 and this time many trout and seven bass were drawn 

 to land. But it was disappointing to find that, while 

 the trout averaged over a pound, the bass had not 



