16 Transactions. 



trout streams where formerly there was good fishing- were now 

 useless. The large fish of days gone by had disappeared. One 

 reason was that there was not food in our streams, with which 

 the hill drainage might have something to do. The salmon 

 had the advantage. They went away to sea, where they 

 could find an unlimited supply of food. The one way to remedy 

 the falling- off in the size and condition of trout was by properly' 

 carried out cultivation. Mr Armistead proceeded to emphasise 

 the importance of selecting the best fish for hatching purposes. 

 They found a great necessity of importing- new blood from time to 

 time and getting- the very best breeds they could. An enormous 

 destruction of the eggs occurred in nature, which they could step 

 in and prevent. It seemed a very wise provision that enabled man 

 to increase the stock of fish in our rivers when the necessity arose, 

 as it had done at the present day. The lecturer produced an 

 artificial ova bed and explained its construction, and demonstrated 

 how simply the fish could be relieved of the ova without injury. 

 He also exhibited a lunnber of eggs in process of hatching, and 

 ex^jlained that at certain stages they could be conveyed to great 

 distances without injury. In speaking of the destruction often 

 caused by dog fish and eels, he mentioned one instance in his own 

 experience in which two eels in three months killed 500 out of 

 1760 yearling- trout placed in a pond, and remarked on the neglect 

 of the eel fishery. The rapid rise and fall of our rivers, he 

 believed, had a very great effect upon our fisheries. It was quite 

 possible that if we went in for salmon cultivation on a large scale 

 we mig'ht have to go in for storing- or impounding water. This 

 would be advantageous in more ways than one. It would pi-event 

 the enormous loss to property owners which was caused by the 

 heavy spates that came down now in far greater volume since the 

 land had been drained. Again, when, owing to that hill drainage, 

 the waters were so low that the fish could not move about, they 

 would be able at little cost to send down artificial spates that would 

 enable them to get to the sea. The fish were now kept longer in 

 our rivers than they used to be, and the consequence was that they 

 got out of sorts and died. The remedy was to get them to a 

 higher temperature — to the sea. This might often be done with 

 little difiiculty and expense by means of ai'tificial spates. As 

 things were, the water swept down in greater volume and violence 

 than formerly, and the mischief done to the spawning beds was 



