ON SMALLER PONDS. 199 



five pounds being tlie largest I ever saw there. Fish 

 of from one to two or two-and-a-half pounds were 

 plentiful, and I could usually, with a float and worm, 

 take from twenty to thirty or forty pounds' weight in 

 a day. 



I had not visited this pond for many years, when, 

 happening to he ia the neighbourhood some time 

 since, I resolved again to fish it with a friend. 

 The trout, I was informed, had entirely disappeared 

 for some time. The pond was literally alive with 

 smaR roach. Any person standing in one spot 

 could easily, with one fragment of worm, and with- 

 out ever changing his bait, take three or four 

 dozen of them, provided, and as long as, any worm 

 was left on the hook, and it mattered very little 

 what spot he selected. Our whole day's fishing 

 produced us hundreds (I cannot say how many) of 

 these wretched little roach, some half-dozen small 

 eels (much smaller than formerly), and three carp, 

 the largest about three-quarters of a pound, and all 

 three of them so starved and so wretchedly thin 

 that, as my friend remarked, one might almost shave 

 oneself with their backbones — the length and head 

 being those of two-pound fish if in fair condition. 

 I should think that one or two more years would 

 certainly, if no remedial measures were adopted, see 



