How to obtain it. 229 



is quite absorbed. Others, again, advocate their being fed a short 

 time before the final absorption of the sac. 



I think it may be taken for granted in the case of young 

 trout, that when nature teaches them to look for food it is right 

 that they should have some given to them. Like all other 

 creatures, they have to learn to eat, and they do not make much 

 "fist" at it at first. Indeed it would be somewhat surprising if 

 they did. It will soon be evident to an observer that they will 

 seize any particles floating past, no matter what they may consist 

 of, and most of these, instead of being swallowed, are ejected 

 again, and this by one fish after another as they drift along the 

 current. The little fish have not learnt to know what is food and 

 what is not, and at first they will snap at anything and everything 

 that they see in the water, provided it is moving. 



It is rather a critical period of the trout's life, for though 

 there should be very few if any deaths amongst them at this stage, 

 yet there may be heavy loss later on if they be mismanaged when 

 just commencing to feed. Now is the time to train them to eat \ 

 the food upon which it is intended to rear them. I have seen I 

 them a few weeks later in life refuse some of the choicest food 

 that could be provided for them, simply because they had been 

 trained to eat something else, and had got accustomed to it. 

 They can be trained at this period to eat almost anything. The 

 question very naturally arises, What is best for them ? 



II believe I am right in saying that the best food for young 

 trout has not been discovered yet ; that is to say, the means of 

 procuring it in sufficient quantity to provide for the wants of a 

 large quantity of them. If we open the stomachs of a number of I ! 

 wild trout fry we find them filled with various Entomostraca and I 

 other minute creatures which inhabit our waters. In a state of ; 

 nature they can usually obtain a supply of these. In a stream, 

 for instance, where we find a young trout here and there a yard 

 or so apart there is a chance of sufficient food turning up to keep 

 the little fish going. They are continually on the look-out for it, 

 and each individual fish takes up its station in some suitable 

 place where there is a current or an eddy, where it is comparatively 

 safe from its enemies, and yet where an abundance of food is 

 brought to it by the current. In a hatchery tank, where there are 



