FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



extermination, because so fastidious in his tastes, to 

 do as I have done, and import ova eyed and packed 

 at Howietoun. Let the fry when hatched be 

 planted in waters favorable to their development, 

 and sport as yet undreamt-of will be obtainable, 

 while a most valuable food-supply is placed within 

 reach of the people, and for these reasons : 



First, whereas these trout are capricious, they 

 are not in the least wary, and often rise within six 

 feet of the boat, so that a persistent fisher in favor- 

 able weather will be sure both of his sport and his 

 supper. Secondly, their reproductive powers are 

 unbounded, and where the requisite conditions 

 meet, viz., well adapted spawning-beds and a suit- 

 able supply of food for young and old, the increase 

 is beyond calculation. To insure all this, a rea- 

 sonable protection of the young fish is imperative. 

 State Commissioners should close the spawning 

 streams, and every sportsman should make it his 

 business to see the law enforced. Let a popular 

 sentiment be created against the murder of finger- 

 lings in the inlets, and within five years the easy 

 capture of two and three pound trout in our lakes 

 becomes possible to every fly-caster. But of all 

 the various forms of poaching, the wholesale 

 slaughter of spawning fish, exhausted by procrea- 

 tion and unfit for human food, is the lowest and 



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