4)6 FIELD AND FOREST. 



has been known to break straight across into no less than ten pieces ; 

 and yet the seasoned saplings seem tough and elastic, and young trees 

 of six feet in diameter do not always break in falling. 



A visit to one of these groves, the Mariposa, during the summer, im- 

 pressed the writer as has no other flora in the continents of Europe or 

 America, whether the majestic forms upon their own native swards, or 

 the most wonderful of the exotic nurselings of the greenhouses. Based 

 upon an area equal to a small cottage lot, with a rich brown trunk 

 branchless for a hundred and fifty feet, and crowned with a towering 

 spire of warm yellow-green foliage campactly massed, slowly growing 

 there since the night when shei)herds heralded the dawn of the Chris- 

 tian era, the Big tree of the Sierras is one of the wonders of the west- 

 ern world. 



J. R. Dodge. 



Gold-Fish Breeding. 



Replying to W. Elliott, in the June number of Science- Gossip : To 

 breed gold-fish in any numbers your pond ought not to be less than 8 

 ft. wide and 2^/^ ft. deep, with a smaller tank 2 ft. deep near the cen- 

 tre, for the fish to go in when the pond is cleaned out. The following 

 plants should be placed in the pond : three of Valisneria spiralis, two 

 of the Water-soldier (Stratiotes.) two of the Water-lily, and three plants 

 of the Anacharis which is the best plant I have discovered for a pond 

 that will cause gold-fish to breed in it. The fish will always find food 

 where the Anacharis grows, and will eat it, hide in it, and spawn on it. 

 I lent a gentleman a self-air acting can some five years ago to bring 

 home two dozen of gold-fish from Paris. I was to have half the fish for 

 the loan of the can. Two dozen were put in the can at Paris ; only 

 nine fish arrived safe ; I would not take any of the fish from him, as he 

 was making a new pond, and I was fitting up a fresh-water and a salt- 

 water aquarium for him. I placed two of the smallest of the gold-fish 

 in the fresh-water aquarium ; the remaining seven gold-fish I placed in 

 the new pond. The fish lived all right, but did not spawn in the pond. 

 The gentleman came to me some eighteen months after, saying he 

 could not get the fish to spawn. I asked him if he had placed any plants 

 in the pond, and he said he had not ; whereupon I told him he could 



