116 FISH CULTURE. 



nary 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 coloured. 

 Here is a point well worthy the consideration of 

 those who wish to take up the science of pisci- 

 culture. What particular 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 England, 

 can for its size equal it in production ? "What, then, 

 can be the particular food that fattens them so 

 rapidly ? 



My own impression is, that the fresh-water 

 gammari, or pulex, to which I have previously 

 referred, have not a little to do with it, for these 

 insects abound in this stream even to profusion — 

 to a greater extent, indeed, than I have ever found 

 them in any other brook. The trout feed upon 

 them voraciously ; and it is a very common thing 

 to find in the trout a mass of these insects, half 

 digested, and as large as a filbert, I have seen 

 the trout picldng them off the walls, which pen the 

 stream in some places, as rapidly as a child would 

 pick blackberries from a hedge ; and I am induced 



