142 How to obtain it. 



bestowed upon their proper development during this period, the 

 fish, like other valuable farming stock, requiring to be very well 

 looked after, the sexes kept separate, and the food varied according 

 to season and circumstances. It is a matter that requires much 

 skill and judgment, and no novice can expect to rear breeding 

 fish successfully at first. I say breeding fish, for it is quite a 

 different and an easy matter to rear fish for the table or for angling 

 purposes. This can be done, and is now being done extensively, 

 and I am glad to say, successfully. It seems strange that we have 

 been so long in realizing that the discovery made by two obscure 

 French peasants, that the ova of the trout could be fertilized and 

 cared for, might be turned to good practical account, largely 

 multiplying the number of fish in our waters. 



In the early days of my experience as a trout culturist, when 

 we were dependent upon natural streams for supplies of ova, a 

 careful watch had to be kept upon the trout as spawning time 

 approached. About the end of October, when the autumnal 

 tinted leaves begin to fall in showers as the winds sighs through 

 the grove, and the mountain tops have already been capped with 

 snow, the trout begin to leave the larger rivers and streams, and 

 push their way into almost every little rivulet on our hills, and in 

 our valleys, in search of suitable places for making their nests and 

 depositing their ova, and places unfrequented by them except in 

 their earlier stages at other times of the year are then often found 

 to be full of fish. Notwithstanding all our pains the trout often 

 succeeded in eluding us, as floods would come down and prevent 

 any work being done in the streams for two or three days, during 

 which time the fish had spawned and perhaps even left the 

 locality, for they do not remain long in the small tributaries; 

 while there they are in danger, and they know it. 



Let us take an imaginary ramble to a wild mountain glen. 

 The little stream which tumbles over the rocks and boulders 

 empties into a lake, which is full of an excellent breed of trout. 

 As we near its mouth three herons rise and flap lazily over the 

 placid surface of the lake, and a flock of wild ducks noisily departs 

 from the reed bed in which it had been hiding. A little further 

 on another heron leaves the brook they know full well the trout 

 are on the move. Passing on, we notice the solitary footprint of 



