THE STEW. 163 



high, yet I am assured on the best authority 

 that, for the first year, the result is most 

 gratifying. The presence of a certain number 

 of kingfishers had no doubt something to do 

 with this loss, and loath as every lover of nature 

 must be to destroy these interesting and grace- 

 ful birds, yet when their rapacious appetite for 

 smaller trout is considered, one is constrained 

 to limit as far as may be the mischief resulting 

 from the presence of too many of them in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of the stew. 



The young trout having been removed from Preparation 

 the stew, it was run down as low as possible second year. 

 and all the water baled out of the deep portion 

 under the shed. It was then kept dry for 

 nearly a month, and looked over from day to 

 day so as to remove any possibility of a single 

 trout having been left in it. The result of such 

 an accident would infallibly be that the next 

 season's stock of yearlings would have served 

 as a very costly form of food for the single two- 

 year-old left behind. A case in point happened 

 to Mr. Andrews. A two-year-old jumped out of 

 a can into a large pond of fry, and being taken 

 out a year later weighed over 51b., while the 

 deficiency on the expected number of yearlings 

 from that pond was not less than 35,000. 



A minute survey was made of the stew, all 

 defective hatches and their fittings were re- 



M 2 



