66 Breedikg Salmon and Trout. 



out to say that the water was all over her kitchen floor, making- a 

 horrid mess. I think I could have stood up to one or the other of 

 them, but an irate cook and a ti'iumphant tap togetlier were too 

 much for me. I fled and left them to settle the matter between 

 them. But, to make a long- story short, after many difficulties 

 and troubles I got things in order, and all was ready to lay down 

 the eggs. 



At that time the Acclimatization Society, to which I was a 

 subscriber, had begun to rear fish near London, and my old friend, 

 Francis Francis, editor of the fishing department of the Field 

 newspaper, was in charge of their establishment. He supplied me 

 with 3000 eggs, 2000 of salmon and 1000 of a large kind of sea 

 trout which run up one of the Hampshire rivers. They were 

 packed in two tins filled with damp moss, and so well had the 

 work been done that only two or three eggs out of the whole lot 

 were bad when they arrived, after a three hundred mile journey 

 by railway. They were placed on the gravel in the two boxes, 

 the water turned on, and all went well. Filled with enthusiasm, 

 and somewhat proud of my triumph over innumerable difficulties, 

 I dreamt of the future, when I should place the young of the true 

 salmon in our river, where there had never been any before, and 

 of a more distant future when these little fish, having gone down 

 to the sea and having fattened themselves up into great salmon, 

 should return to the river and I should every day catch huge fish 

 in great numbers, eat some of them myself, and send others as 

 presents to my friends ; and to a still more distant time, when the 

 nets at the river's mouth should be full of salmon and the fisher- 

 men should bless my name, and I should be looked upon as 

 a public benefactor. I was young in those days 1 and you will 

 not be surprised to hear that all m_)- dreams did not come true. 

 We all know that no great work can be carried out without 

 enthusiasm ; some of you may from experience know what a 

 terrible nuisance the individual enthusiast may become to all 

 about him. Some of the members of our household began almost 

 to hate me before many weeks were over. Some said 1 could talk 

 of nothing but fish, and that I was always damp and messy. But 

 the greatest grievance was that of two maid servants. I over- 

 heard one say to the other — " There he is out there messing about 

 with his eggs and thing's again, bother him !" Why should it 

 annoy them ? I made no messes in their department. I was puzzled, 



I 



