ON THE FOOD OF FISH. 115 



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 con- 

 sidered 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 xmder favourable 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 thfe 

 colour of the flfish of a good fish, instead of the ordi- 



' 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. 

 U6i. 



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