68 WORK IN THE HATCHING-HOUSE. 



LENGTH OF JOURNEY. 



With care fry can be carried for twenty-four hours, but the 

 result is not satisfactory if the journey be longer. They get weak 

 from want of food, while it is impossible to feed them in the tank 

 without fouling the water. Of course small quantities of fry can 

 be sent much further and much easier than large. The re-aeration 

 of the water with fry is a difficulty. It cannot be done automati 

 cally, as is the case with yearlings, because the motion the water 

 acquires tires out the fry. In fact, the object of filling the tank 

 well in to the cone of zinc is to check the very motion the tank is 

 designed to produce, and the amount of which is determined by 

 the diameter of the tank at the water-line. Within certain limits, 

 the less water in the tank the greater the disturbance and the 

 better the aeration. A skilled attendant is generally necessary, if 

 fry are sent a long journey, to watch the temperature, especially at 

 out-of-the-way junctions. All the stations on the usual routes are 

 now accustomed to live fish-traffic, and invariably show the 

 greatest consideration, but where tanks of live fish are a new 

 thing, they are apt to be placed in the best light, i.e. the hot sun, 

 and very considerably admired, which, however complimentary, 

 is anything but beneficial. 



PROFIT IN SALE OF FRY 



must be much larger than in any other department, as the risks 

 are much greater, and when redds are properly understood we 

 expect to be able to drop them out of the price-list, or, at least, 

 merely retain them as samples. The situations in which fry can 

 be more profitably used for stocking than ova in redds are very 

 limited ; in fact, we consider ftnir hours' journey from the hatching 

 house the practical limit. And in this case the fry should be 

 turned out a week or ten days before commencing to feed. At 

 this period they show a strong tendency to wander, and will take 

 up what they consider suitable positions before the sac food is 

 exhausted and they become faint with hunger. This pre-supposes 

 that gravelly shallows are to be found in the stream which it is 



