HERTFORDSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. xlv 
places lessened, and fish, become the food of the many instead of 
being only the food of the rich. 
The Chairman asked why they found roe in soles hut never milt. 
Mr. Stradling enquired as to the possibility of stocking ditches 
and other fresh waters with such sea-fish as the sole, as they knew 
that some fish lived in the sea and fresh water indiscriminately. 
Dr. Brett referred to the experiments made by the late Mr. 
Drank Buckland, Mr. Jonathan King, and Dr. Hood, in stocking 
the river at Watford with fish. It was said that a cross had 
occurred between the Colne trout and the Neufchatel trout put into 
the Colne at Otterspool, as trout having the characteristics of both 
were now caught. Dish were not now being cultivated here so 
much, but Lord Essex and the Hon. A. Holland-Hibbert had 
introduced grayling, which were increasing. It was useless to 
overstock water with fish, for they would lack their proper food. 
The Lecturer said that probably the reason why soles with roe 
were more common than those with milt was that the male fish were 
rarer and more wary than the female, so that few found their way 
to the market. It was not generally known that many marine fish 
will live in fresh water. The salmon must go to fresh water at 
certain seasons of the year, and many other fish attempted to do 
the same thing. The herring sometimes spawned in positively 
fresh water. At Plymouth, where the sound itself is brackish, it 
was believed to be perfectly possible to stock it with marine fish. 
Ordinary Meeting, 18th December, 1890, at St. Albans. 
D. M. Campbell, Esq., D.L.S., D.Z.S., etc., Yice-President, in 
the Chair. 
The following papers were read :— 
1. “ On Bainfall and Water-supply.” By John Hopkinson, 
D.L.S., D.G.S., D.K.Met.Soc. ( Transactions , Yol. YI, p. 129.*) 
Mr. Hopkinson concluded his paper with the proposition that the 
following resolution be passed by the Society :—“ That the Hert¬ 
fordshire County Council be requested to take the necessary steps 
for opposing any clauses in the Bills of the London Yestries and 
the Corporation of London now before Parliament relating to the 
Water-supply of the Metropolis, which, by giving to either of these 
bodies power to abstract a large quantity of water from the under¬ 
ground reservoir in the catchment basins of either the Colne or the 
Lea, thus unduly lowering the plane of saturation of the Chalk, 
are likely to have a prejudicial effect upon the welfare of the 
County and its inhabitants.” 
The Chairman said that the subject of the paper was a most 
important one. Mr. Hopkinson had pointed out that the reserve 
of water under London, and indeed throughout the whole of the 
Home Counties, was being reduced. Already in his own 
* Incorporated in the paper on “ Water and Water-supply.” 
