234 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



" On the Chess a trout of two pounds would be a very- 

 fine one, the fish averaging from half a pound to a pound 

 and a quarter. On the Wick it would be an ordinary fish ; 

 indeed, they are not considered fair takeable fish under a 

 pound and a half. They are often caught of four and five 

 pounds, and I have known them to run up to seven or 

 eight or even ten pounds; and this in a small stream, little 

 more than a good-sized brook, is a most astonishing size ; 

 for not only do these fish acquire this unusual weight, but 

 they arrive at it very rapidly indeed. I have had many 

 opportunities of knowing how they will increase under 

 favorable circumstances, as one of the fisheries on the 

 stream belonging to a friend of mine was on one or two 

 occasions almost destroyed by bleach and tar water — some 

 forty or fifty brace of fish being all that were saved : none 

 of them were over two pounds, and yet, in two years, many 

 of them had grown to six and seven pounds' weight.* 



" Taking the Wycombe fish as a breed, I may say that 

 they are the heaviest and thickest fish, for their length, it 

 has ever been my lot to see ; while the color of the flesh 

 of a good fish, instead of the ordinary pale pink of a really 

 well-conditioned trout, is often of a deep red, much redder, 

 indeed, than that of salmon. On the other hand, the Chess 

 fish are not particularly handsome, shapely, or well colored. 

 Here is a point well worthy the consideration of those who 

 wish to take up the science of pisciculture. What par- 

 ticular species of food can it be which not only makes up 

 for the total absence of the may-fly and minnow, but so 

 feeds the fish in this admirable little stream, that there is 

 no river, large or small, which I have ever seen in all Eng- 



* Since this was written, I regret to say that again have the whole 

 of his fish been destroyed by filth sent down from above. — F. F., 

 1864. "^ 



