A Sportsman at Large 55 



of Moat Mount I They had just happened and they just 

 were not I 



That is all there is to it. 



But the ultra-rapid growth of fish under certain favourable 

 circumstances has been strikingly borne home to me on several 

 occasions. Here is a case in point. 



Some few years after the Big Pond had been drained off 

 as described, a like method of clearance was resorted to as 

 regards the Barton. Similarly, the bed was left dry for some 

 months, but the pond was at last replenished by " February 

 Fill Dyke." 



In May, the water swarmed with diminutive rudd and 

 roach fry. (How they came there goodness only knows !) 



Now the Big Pond was over-stocked with perch of the 

 microbian order, such as never increased in length or bulk 

 by one jot or tittle. It was easy enough to catch them for 

 they would fight and hustle for a particle of worm on a small 

 hook, before it could sink to its proper level. 



Two dozen of these liliputian fishes I transferred to the 

 Barton Pond, where forthwith they set to work gorging them- 

 selves at the expense of the luckless fry, and had the tune 

 of their lives ! 



By October these same fry were utterly exterminated and 

 I determined to see how the perchlets which I had introduced 

 had fared meanwhile, so I made an attack with worm. 



Success was instantaneous and I landed seven fish weighing 

 close on three-quarters of a pound each ! Fine, sportive fellows, 

 in excellent condition, with deeply-coloured stripes and fins, 

 and opalescent gills. 



These I returned to their native element, figuring that in 

 another year, at their present rate of progression and develop- 

 ment, I might find myself fighting with Brobdingnagian 

 specimens. 



But oh, dear no ! Now that the supply of cannibalistic 

 provender had failed, these voracious hooligans refused to 

 grow an ounce heavier ; moreover, as soon as the last of them 

 paid forfeit, their numerous progeny reverted to the two- 

 inch scale, and so remain to this day. Whereby and where- 

 fore I have come to the conclusion that the average size of 



