We have killed
this morning four fish averaging a pound weight each. All below that
weight we throw in, as is our rule here; but you may have remarked
that none of them exceeded half a pound; that they were almost all
about herring size. The smaller ones I believe to be year-old fish,
hatched last spring twelvemonth; the pound fish two-year-olds. At
what rate these last would have increased depends very much, I
suspect, on their chance of food. The limit of life and growth in
cold-blooded animals seems to depend very much on their amount of
food. The boa, alligator, shark, pike, and I suppose the trout also,
will live to a great age, and attain an enormous size, give them but
range enough; and the only cause why there are trout of ten pounds
and more in the Thames lashers, while one of four pounds is rare
here, is simply that the Thames fish has more to eat. Here, were the
fish not sufficiently thinned out every year by anglers, they would
soon become large-headed, brown, and flabby, and cease to grow. Many
a good stream has been spoilt in this way, when a squire has unwisely
preferred quantity to quality of fish.
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