FISH ACCLIMATISATION. 397 



one end and runs through a system of perforated pipes under- 

 neath the zinc trays which contain the ova, passing out by 

 waste-pipes for carrying off the surplus water. These boxes 

 are all on a level, the old staircase arrangement having been 

 long ago discarded. Under Silk's system the loss of ova during 

 the hatching process has been reduced to a minimum. I think 

 now, as a rule, we hatch something like 85,000 to 90,000 out 

 of 100,000 ova, and the losses in the feeding-boxes are much 

 less in proportion. Having been obliged to dry and clean out my 

 trout lake fourteen months ago in consequence of an irruption 

 of pike and perch, I have this year been able to turn in nearly 

 120,000 of 1884 fry, from which next year I hope for great 

 results, as they will hg.ve become yearlings of about three inches 

 or more in length. Silk has obtained prizes at the Norwich 

 and the Fisheries exhibitions for both his hatching and feeding 

 boxes. Through the kindness of some of my friends, the 

 late Frank Popham of Littlecote, the late Lord Chesham and 

 others, in allowing me to send down to their rivers at the 

 spawning season, I have been enabled to hatch Kennet and 

 Rickmansworth trout, and have now crosses of various kinds 

 of trout in the different ponds at Burghley. I must also 

 thank Mr. Popham and Lord Chesham for allowing me to 

 continue occasionally to send down to their rivers for trout 

 ova, and I am glad to know that the fry hatched at Burghley, , 

 which I sent back to the Kennet, seem to do better than fry 

 hatched in that river in the natural way. 



The best cross for the Burghley waters appears to be that 

 between the American and the Kennet trout, as the fish grow 

 rapidly and seem to do better than the others in every way. 



With regard to the American Black Bass, Frank Buckland 

 was very anxious to introduce it into this country, and spoke 

 and wrote to me several times on the subject, urging me to 

 make the experiment. He succeeded through a friend in getting 

 a few of the fish over, but the cost was too great, and the risks 

 to be run too numerous, to encourage him to repeat the experi- 

 nient, and I believe that all this small lot of Black Bass died 



