STOCKING. 137 



they have built up visions of raising tens of 

 thousands of large yearlings, and not only 

 stocking their own streams to repletion, but 

 even competing with the professional piscicul- 

 turists and selling sufficient to accumulate a 

 considerable reserve fund for future operations. 

 The results have not warranted such sanguine 

 expectations. Relying on the distinct assurance 

 of the oldest inhabitants of the district that the 

 springs bubbling forth from the ground had 

 never visibly decreased even in the hottest 

 and dryest seasons, the site of the projected 

 ponds had been chosen and the ponds dug. 

 Yet the very first summer after they had been 

 made and fully stocked with healthy fry the 

 flow of water slowly but surely dwindled away 

 to a mere dribble, or possibly failed altogether. 

 Distracted at the impending loss of their 

 young trout, the experimentalists have erected 

 pumps driven by steam power, or by a small 

 windmill, or even by hand labour, and succeeded 

 in raising from the springs below sufficient water 

 to keep a small flow into the head of the ponds. 

 Gradually the surface of the water has become 

 covered with a filthy green slime, and the daily 

 count of dead trout has left no doubt that the 

 expected tens of thousands have been reduced 

 to hundreds, and these not of the largest or 

 healthiest looking. At length, after a dismal 



