THE REARING OF BLACK BASS

AND OTHER PISCICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS AT BURGHLEY

HOUSE.

I have compiled the following notes on the rearing of Black Bass and my other experiments in pisciculture at Burghley, in compliance with a request made to me by Mr. CholmondeleyPennell, who thought that the experience obtained of practical fish hatching and rearing during the last twenty years might be of interest to fishermen and fishery owners.

Should they be so, I shall be pleased. I would premise, however, that my observations are offered rather as rough notes jotted down from time to time than as a finished or elaborate essay.

Some twelve or fourteen years ago, Frank Buckland, with whom I had been on terms of friendship for many years, came down to pay me a visit at Burghley, and he brought with him about two hundred trout ova in a pickle-bottle. The bottle containing the ova was hung to a tap over a sink in the Andromeda Hall on the west side of the house, and the water was allowed to trickle into it for about a month or five weeks, when the young trout began to hatch out. The water, though very pure, is exceedingly hard and cold, but the young fish appeared to do very fairly well.

This was my first successful effort at pisciculture, previous attempts having all resulted in failures.

Of course many of the fish hatched in the pickle-bottle died, but some were strong enough to resist all evils arising from my ignorance and mismanagement, and grew into healthy yearling

trout which were turned into a small pond in the park, where they lived for many years. After this I set up a small breeding establishment, consisting of slate-boxes arranged in staircase form, one above the other, with water laid on to run through them from top to bottom, over a bed of gravel. Buckland had introduced me to a Swiss-German Professor (De Vouga) who lived at Neufchâtel, and he for several years supplied me with large quantities of ova from his piscicultural establishment in Switzerland, and these I hatched and brought up in considerable numbers, turning the fish, as they grew strong enough to take care of themselves, into ponds in Burghley Park, and into a small lake a mile and a half from the house, named Whitewater.

All these trout (principally Salmo ferox) were hatched on the old system upon gravel, which I found to be very troublesome, and having discovered on trial that the ova hatched as well on the bare slate of the hatching-boxes, and required less cleansing and attention, the gravel was discarded altogether. My valet Deane (now Steward of the Conservative Club), whom I had taught how to attend to the fish-cultural establishment during my absence from home, suggested trying perforated zinc trays for holding the ova, so that they could be readily moved when the boxes required cleaning or the ova to be transferred to other water-runs in the conservatory where I hatched my fish. These trays I found to answer admirably, and the following year hatched some sixty or eighty thousand ova sent me from America by Sir Edward Thornton, who kindly obtained them from the United States Government Fish Cultural Establishment.

I here insert a letter to Mr. Frank Buckland, from Land and Water, 1874, with Deane's observations and notes on the treatment of trout ova; also a letter from Deane answering some enquiries I had made to him the other day.

Fish Breeding at Burghley House, 1874.

Dear Buckland,-You will be glad to hear that I have just received a good remittance of ova from Mr. Robert Roosvelt, New

York, through the kindness of Sir Edward Thornton. The ova have arrived in first-rate order, and are safely deposited in my breeding-boxes. Four boxes contain the ova of the Coregonus albus (white-fish), four of Salmo amethystus (salmon-trout), and four of Salmo fontinalis. The ova of the white-fish seem to travel the least well of the three kinds, as there are many dead amongst them, while the other two sorts have arrived in perfect order. I could have some 'Black Bass' sent over but am afraid of them, as Mr. Roosvelt says that the Black Bass (Grystes nigricans) is a fighting American, and will swallow every British fish in your lakes. It is our champion fish, and it can whip all creation of the fish race.' After this description, I think that you will advise me to have nothing to do with such a devil, if I want to get up trout and Salmo fontinalis in my ponds. The fish hatched from eggs sent me by Sir Edward Thornton last year are doing very well, and are growing rapidly. They are principally salmon, white and big'lake trout, with a few white-fish. I hatched a good number of the latter, but, unfortunately, lost most of them, through their escaping down the waste-pipe of the lower large tank. I had a guard of perforated zinc but the little white-fish seem to work themselves through everything, and they got away, despite all my care and that of my servant, who is a very good hand at fish-hatching. The trout appear to grow rapidly; I have taken out several over one and two pounds weight this summer, while shifting my fish from one pond to another; and one trout was nearly three pounds in weight. These fish had only been hatched a year, or a year and a half at most.1 Amongst them, I took out about one dozen very pretty fish, as bright as salmon, but different in form. They are broader than salmon, flatter in the sides, and the head is of a different form from either the above-mentioned fish or the trout. The scales were like salmon scales but rather coarser. I am sorry now that I did not take fuller particulars of the fish before turning them into the ponds, and I cannot get at them now. Not having seen a full-grown American white-fish, I am unable to say if these fish are the same; but not having had any white-fish spawn sent me the year before last, I do not think that my friends can be the Coregonus albus. Anyhow they are very handsome fish, and they came in the ova from the other side of the Atlantic, and were hatched in my boxes here.

I have no new discoveries to tell you of, but soon hope to find

1 This must be an error, and must mean two or three years.

that the instructions you gave me in fish-hatching a few years ago will result in my having a large part of the lake at Burghley full of fine trout of various species. I have lately dammed off the part above the bridge, and after taking a crop of oats and seeds off, am now gravelling the bottom, after clearing out the mud.

Enclosed I send you the observations made by my valet (Deane), while attending to the hatching of the ova sent me from various parts. The ova from Switzerland generally turn out well; but the sender should be more careful about the packing of the ova, which are often sent in too crowded a state.

1

Truly yours,

EXETER.

Burghley House.

December 9th, 1873.-Arrived at Burghley per 'Cuba' from New York: Salmon-trout, brook-trout, and white-fish. The latter were mostly all dead, and very much clotted together. I think, perhaps, they were too thickly packed. The salmon-trout were much better, and the brook-trout stood the journey very well. Placed the ova in the boxes.

SALMON-TROUT.

15th. Ova commenced to hatch. Very few dead eggs among brook-trout. Most of the white-fish eggs dead.

21st. A good number of the salmon-trout hatched out.

28th. Most of the salmon-trout hatched. No brook-trout hatched. Eggs looking well, very few dead.

WHITE-FISH.-Not a good one to be seen.

Observations on the Treatment of Trout Ova.

The temperature of the water for the trout eggs should be from 40° to 45°. Anything above 50° is weakening; it will hatch them out sooner, but will increase the number of deaths.

The eggs from America are packed much better than those from Switzerland, and arrive in better condition, though they must be a longer time on the journey.

In placing the eggs in the troughs, equally distribute them over the gravel with a feather; and it is better, if possible, not to let them touch each other, as the bad ones soon contaminate the good, and they adhere to each other. The white eggs, or dead ones, should be taken out every morning. When I have missed a morning from want of time, I find more than double the number of dead eggs the next morning.

When they begin to come out of their shell, increase the supply of water. At first I used to have perforated zinc over the outflow of the troughs, to prevent the trout passing down into the lower troughs; but the zinc soon gets stopped up by the little things being drawn against it. Then the water flows over, taking with it the best fish. Let them have a free passage from the top trough to the bottom one. Do not put any eggs in the lower trough; then it

The Conservative Club, 25-3-85.

To the Marquis of Exeter.

My Lord, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's letter of to-day's date, and beg to inclose herewith the extract from Land and Water, upon the 'Fish Breeding at Burghley House,' in which I found very much interest and pleasure, and was very sorry indeed when I had to give it up.

The perforated zinc linings to the troughs or trays were entirely my own idea, and they were made by Mr. Tillett, an ironmonger in Stamford. There were three principal reasons which led me to try the perforated tray; firstly, the necessity of doing something to cleanse the gravel which used to get such a quantity of sediment accumulated during the Hatching, and more especially during the feeding of the young fry; the food not eaten would lie among the gravel until it was bad, and a fungus would soon grow upon it, and would soon cling to any gravel, egg, or sickly little fish that happened to be near it, so that when I used to take it up, with the little pincers I had for the purpose, a whole bunch of

will be ready for the older fish as they come down, and ready to turn out into the brook or pond, when the umbilical sac is absorbed. Have a rose in the bottom trough.

When they were kept in troughs, and fed for several months, very few were reared; the percentage of deaths (from gill fever) being so large. But since I have turned them out as soon as they begin to feed, I have been more successful with them, and therefore should always turn them out if I had a brook or pond to turn them into, on the absorption of the navel-bag. Such places should be selected when the water is rather shallow, and not accessible to larger fish, and where there is a gravelly bottom, and with bushes or trees on the banks, which not only afford shade, but also attract numerous insects which are desirable for the fish.

In some of the ponds the fish require feeding as soon as they are turned in. Fish roe suspended in the water by a piece of string they are very fond of, and very soon leave nothing but the skin. The very small red worm is also good for them; they do not object to curds, and the flesh of frogs boiled and grated. By Midsummer they are large enough to take small maggots, of which they seem very fond. They feed best at early morn, and I always feed them at a given spot, and they are mostly on the look-out. In our pond I have some two or three years old (the American salmon-trout and the Swiss great lake trout), and there are some very fine fish among them, between two and three pounds each. In the summer I put a few hundred minnows in, and I now feed them about twice a week with beef and biscuits, and they come at it with a rush delightful to behold.

GEORGE DEANE.