WEEDS. 49 



quent seasons. The main object is to render 

 the state of the river as favourable as possible 

 for sport. The general character of south- 

 country rivers is that the reaches are com- 

 prised under one of three categories, viz. : 

 shallows, mill ponds, or hatch holes. The 

 shallows are usually broad and fast-running as 

 compared with the other parts of the stream, 

 and the bed of the river is gravel more or less 

 covered with mud and weeds. The mill ponds 

 are of moderate depth, the stream rather 

 sluggish, and the bottom muddy. The hatch 

 holes are deep, swirling, eddying holes, and 

 the force of the stream has usually thrown up 

 a bar of gravel at their lower ends, over which 

 the depth of water is very small. The prin- 

 ciples on which the weeds should be cut must 

 be separately considered in each case. 



The ova are hatched, and the helpless alevins Treatment of 

 lie in the shallow water until the yolk sac is 

 absorbed. The fry then make their way to the 

 thinnest water in the immediate vicinity, and 

 remain there during the early portion of their 

 lives. The more plentiful the supply of young 

 shrimps, snails, and immature larvae, the longer 

 they are disposed to inhabit these portions of 

 the river. The parent fish, after spawning, take 

 up their positions on the shallows, in compara- 

 tively slack water, behind boulders or beds of 



E 



shallows. 



