■590 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



■ THE REARING OF BLACK BASS 



AND OTHER PISCICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS AT BURGHLEY 

 HOUSE. 



I have compiled the following notes on the rearing of Black 

 Bass and my other experiments in pisciculture at Burghley, in 

 compliance with a request made to me by Mr. Cholmondeley- 

 Pennell, who thought that the experience obtained of practical 

 fish hatching and rearing during the last twenty years might be 

 of interest to fishermen and fishery owners. 



Should they be so, I shall be pleased. I would premise, 

 however, that my observations are offered rather as rough notes 

 jotted down from time to time than as a finished or elaborate 

 essay. 



Some twelve or fourteen years ago, Frank Buckland, with 

 whom I had been on terms of friendship for many years, came 

 down to pay me a visit at Burghley, and he brought with him 

 about two hundred trout ova in a pickle-bottle. The bottle 

 containing the ova was hung to a tap over a sink in the 

 Andromeda Hall on the west side of the house, and the water 

 was allowed to trickle into it for about a month or five weeks, 

 when the young trout began to hatch out. The water, though 

 very pure, is exceedingly hard and cold, but the young fish 

 appeared to do very fairly well. 



This was my first successful effort at pisciculture, previous 

 attempts having all resulted in failures. 



Of course many of the fish hatched in the pickle-bottle died, 

 but some were strong enough to resist all evils arising from my 

 ignorance and mismanagement, and grew into healthy yearling 



