196 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



there is always a risk of killing them by using water 

 with which you are not acquainted. 



It is best, I think, to accompany the fish all the 

 way, and see them safely in the hands of those to 

 whom they are consigned, though, where there is no 

 change of cars to the end of the route, I sometimes 

 leave them the last fifty miles, with a small fee, in the 

 hands of the express messenger. 



Alevins require less air than older fish, and no food, 

 consequently more can be taken in less water than 

 when older, and the risk of loss is correspondingly 

 less, making the alevin stage the best time for trans- 

 portation. But, as you cannot sell all your fish at the 

 alevin stage, you will probably have occasion to trans- 

 port the young fry at various ages. This is always 

 practicable ; only it should be remembered that the 

 older they are the more water they require. 



A thousand alevins can be carried in a gallon of 

 water, kept very cold. At the age of three months I 

 allow a gallon of water for each two hundred feeding fry. 



In brief, then, when you transport young fry, count 

 them the day before, start them in good condition, go 

 with them, keep the water very cold with ice, do not 

 change it, aerate it regularly, and do not upset the 

 tank, and you will find the fish will do almost as well 

 on a journey of twelve or twenty-four hours as if they 

 were at home in the stream. I have carried ten thou- 

 sand young fry, four months old, all day in hot weather, 

 from 5 A. M. to 6 p. m., in fifty gallons of water, without 

 change, and with a loss of only seven fish out of the ten 

 thousand. See Appendix, on Journeys with Live Fish. 



