The Development of Modern Fish Culture. 171 



which has resulted in a steady forward movement during the last 

 forty years, and it was he who said that under natural conditions 

 not more than one trout egg in every thousand produced a mature 

 fish. 



It was admitted on all hands that the first heavy loss took 

 place during the egg stage, and one can imagine the enthusiasm 

 aroused amongst the little band of experimenters when they dis- 

 covered that by means of their methods they could hatch off 

 safely somewhere about 90 per cent. The person who invented 

 that stupid saying " Well begun is half done " has been the cause 

 of a great deal of bitter disappointment. The much older and 

 wiser advice contained in the words " Let he that thinketh he 

 standeth take heed lest he fall " is applicable to most human 

 undertakings, and certainly much disappointment would have 

 been saved to the pioneers in fish culture if they had borne it in 

 mind. 



Such a splendid beginning as 90 per cent, of young trout 

 hatched off as against a probable 5 or 10 per cent, under natural 

 conditions, was a tremendous gain, and one can well imagine 

 how rosy the future looked. It was not long after the young fish 

 were hatched before troubles of various kinds came along, and 

 each one had to be studied and, when understood, guarded 

 against, and for a long time the elimination of one trouble only 

 left the way clear for others, so that it soon became apparent 

 that the hatching of eggs was only a first simple step which led 

 one into a wilderness where there was lurking trouble on every 

 hand, with no experience or knowledge to cope with it. The 

 rearing of young trout to yearling stage was an accomplishment 

 only arrived at with any measure of success after many weary 

 years. Again and again, after it was thought the matter was 

 thoroughly understood, new troubles would come along, and a 

 whole season's work would be lost in a few hours. Some of the 

 most memorable recollections of my early boyhood are connected 

 with these wholesale losses amongst young fish, and I think it was 

 not till the early nineties that there was any security felt in the 

 ultimate outcome of a season's work, and even to-day there are 

 many disasters which may, and occasionally do, overtake the fish 

 culturist, rendering this form of farming a very precarious busi- 

 ness indeed. All the experience and costly experimenting was 

 borne by some half-dozen men in this country, but as soon as 



