EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING. 7 
of the fish was taken or disappeared between ro A. M. and 4 P. 
M. the previous day, I began to watch, and was rewarded 
at 2 p. M. by noticing something crawl from under a bunch 
of water-cresses which grew on the edge of the spring. It 
first appeared like a mouse. When it reached the water it 
dove down, and like a flash it was up again, with something 
attached to it. I was not slow in capturing the intruder, and 
found to my surprise that it was a large bug, resembling a good- 
sized locust, having one of my small fish in his grasp. 
Now, gentlemen, as I am no entomologist, I do not know the 
name of it, but from the manner in which it held the trout, I 
should call it a bear-bug, for indeed the poor fish was getting a 
bear’s hug. Having placed it in a jar of water, it still held on 
to the fish, and seemed to enjoy its imprisonment. From obser- 
vations with the naked eye, while the bug was in the glass jar, 
I could see that it tortured the fish from a tubular prong, which 
it cast from the tail and fastened on the fish. In a second the 
bug became inflated to double its size. Now, gentlemen, as our 
worthy Treasurer remarked, I think this is a ‘“ blood-sucking 
fisherman, and largely the cause of the depletion of our small 
fish.” Being inquisitive to know if the thief would live out 
of water, | emptied the jar and placed some screen-work over 
the mouth for the purpose of procuring air. Next morning 
I found the bug, with his toes turned up, and his victim beside 
him; so 1 found, good fisherman as he was, he differed from 
the many anglers of the present day. Nothing but spring- 
water would suit his bugship, and enable him to feast on his 
dainty morsel. 
‘Now, to return to the large fish. It is not very pleasant to 
find a large trout dead or dying without any seeming cause, as 
the fish would look healthy, and as proof of such, when cap- 
tured and opened, you find that it had eaten a good feed a short 
time previous. One day last month I was feeding some large 
trout that had come down from the spawning-beds. Suddenly 
I noticed one of the number jump clear out of water, wriggle 
a moment, and then turn over. I took it on the bank and first 
examined to see if it had choked itself; but that was not the 
cause of death. I at once opened it and discovered a four-inch 
