122 FISH CULTURE, 



is grown over with a peculiar weed ; in this is found 

 a great variety of insects, chiefly Crustacea, as small 

 snails of various sorts : the lake also abounds in the 

 more minute entomostraceae. Large quantities of both 

 are often found in the stomachs of the trout when 

 taken. Here sport with the fly is generally good,' 

 because the lake is shallow and clear, and the fish 

 see the fly well. • In other lakes again, where these 

 species of weeds, which form the harbour and sub- 

 sistence of these insects, are wanting, it will usually 

 be found that the trout are small, or, if large, iU-fed 

 and meagre. I know also a small lake in Wales, 

 where the fish never take a fly until after dark, when 

 fish from two to three pounds weight (an unusual size 

 for Wales) may be taken. This lake abounds in 

 leeches, and the trout are very fine in it. A quarter 

 of a mUe off is a similar lake, in which trout do not 

 thrive at all, and, indeed, are seldom found ; while 

 about a mile from it are one or two small lakes, in 

 which the trout do not average three ounces. And 

 yet the character of the lakes, and the soil in and 

 about all of them, are apparently precisely similar. 



Yet one more instance I must select, to show the 

 changeable and contrary habits of fish. In a large 

 miU-pool belonging to a friend at Alton, are some 

 wonderfully fine trout, the trout running from two to 



