THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL. 



friends," said the farmer, " you wander from 

 the question." 



It is curious, though, to see how this mere 

 thread of water supports a whole isolated 

 colony of its own, composed of many dozen 

 kinds of fish, insects, and crustaceans, who 

 know no more of other members of their 

 race than the people on a small Pacific 

 island knew of the human family before 

 Captain Cook burst upon them from the 

 blue, with the blessings of Christianity, rum, 

 and extermination. These trout, for ex- 

 ample, are a group apart ; they are always 

 small, even when adult, because there is 

 little food for them, and the stream is little. 

 In big rivers, where there is space to turn, 

 and provisions are plentiful, a successful 

 trout of the self-same species runs to five 

 or six pounds, while the very near variety 

 which frequents great lakes not infrequently 

 grows to forty-five or fifty. But here, in 

 this upland rill, an ounce or two is the limit. 

 They live mostly in pairs, like well-conducted 

 203 



