232 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



brief description of the safeguards employed at the 

 Cold Spring Trout Ponds. There is, first, an admis- 

 sion-fee to the grounds, and visitors are required to 

 register their names. This has a good effect in vari- 

 ous ways. It keeps the crowd unfamiliar with the 

 temptation, which is a good deal ; for persons who 

 have never seen the trout in the daytime are much 

 less likely to come for them at night than those who 

 have seen them often. Poachers might say of trout 

 what Pope said of vice, — 



When " seen too oft, familiar with its face, 

 We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 



An admittance fee also makes the number of visi- 

 tors so small that any suspicious persons taking obser- 

 vations for a midnight raid are likely to be noticed. 

 At all events, it makes you feel safer than if there 

 were people around your ponds all day that you did 

 not know anything about. Finally, if a fee is objec- 

 tionable to your taste, you need not take it any oftener 

 than you like. Giving notice that one is charged will 

 answer the purpose. 



Secondly, a copy of the statute in regard to poach 

 ing is placed where all can read it. This has a good 

 effect, for a quiet contemplation of six months' im- 

 prisonment, as the penalty is in New Hampshire, or 

 $ 100 fine, as it is in some other places, is a serious 

 damper on the ardor of at least some minds possessed 

 of poaching proclivities. 



Thirdly, a tight board fence eight feet high (and it 

 should be higher), closely spiked at the top, surrounds 

 the ponds of large trout. This, it is true, will not 



