How to obtain it. 283 



On another river I was shown a pool in which many fish 

 were frequently imprisoned, and where the owner did not wish to 

 incur the expense of a fish-way. These fish were also taken out 

 by poachers. Nothing could have been much simpler than the 

 best method of dealing with this pool without making a pass. The 

 fish were very easily taken out, and I advised that they should be 

 lifted over the obstruction. A horse and cart a few times a year 

 would have done the work at a very trifling cost, and would have 

 saved the fish, or if preferred the stream itself could have been 

 made, by means of a wheel and elevator, to lift over every fish as 

 soon as it came up. I am satisfied of one thing, and that is that 

 it would often pay a great deal better to lift the fish over an 

 obstruction than to watch them, for the salmon poacher is up to 

 all sorts of tricks, and often pays more attention to watching the 

 movements of the bailiff than of the fish. He can quickly deal 

 with the latter when he gets his opportunity, and it is for that he 

 watches. It is all very well to say that poaching is kept down on 

 this or that river, or that the poachers do not get many fish. I 

 know the case is often very different, for I have made a special 

 study of the poacher, his habits and handiwork, and he is not by 

 any means to be despised. 



One great advantage that is to be gained by impounding the 

 fish is the opportunity it gives for the selection of the fittest. 

 Often under the present system eggs are so difficult to procure 

 that any fish that come to hand are gladly taken, and it sometimes 

 happens that milters cannot be obtained, and eggs are lost or go 

 unimpregnated, to give endless trouble in the hatcheries afterwards. 

 One man once told me very seriously that he had under such 

 circumstances used the milt of a trout, and he evidently thought 

 he was giving me a good wrinkle by tendering the information. I 

 heard of another somewhat similar case in which sea trout milt 

 was used. The sooner the work is put upon a proper basis the 

 better will it be. 



I have often known salmon ova to be collected from any 

 part of a stream where the fish could be got at most readily, 

 sometimes being taken from the extreme head waters, and 

 sometimes close above the tideway, or even in the brackish water 

 itself. Salmon will occasionally spawn in brackish water, for I 



