TRANSPLANTATION OF FRY. 6i> 



required to stock. Should this not be the case, fry should not be 

 despatched until they have been artificially fed for about a month. 

 So soon as they can take pounded horse-flesh they can stand 

 starvation for twenty-four hours without much loss of energy, 

 which will give them time to find some food in their new quarters. 

 It must never be forgotten that fry of salmon and trout do not 

 roam in search of food, but take up fixed positions, and snatch at 

 particles carried past by the current ; and they do not forage like 

 yearlings until they are three or four months old. Many of the 

 failures in fish -culture are attributable to this habit being over- 

 looked, although as early as 1873 it was noted by Livingston 

 Stone, who says (Domesticated Trout, p. 171) : 



" As they continue to grow," they " increase their range, and by 

 the first of September or a little later . . . they take their food 

 like old trout." 



The quotation however occurs in a passage in which Stone 

 gives directions as to the size of the habitat to be provided for 

 fry artificially reared, and it is not clear from the context that the 

 immense importance of the converse in stocking natural waters 

 was realised. Fry are useful for stocking artificial ponds fed by 

 a long open canal without sufficient level to afford the slight fall 

 required to construct redds. When in the hatching-house they 

 have been thoroughly accustomed to pounded horse-flesh, 



THE FRY ARE TRANSPLANTED 



to Howietoun. This is always done before breakfast, when the 

 water at Howietoun, which at this season is higher than that in the 

 hatching-house, is coolest. The hatching-boxes are poured into 

 pails provided with a large perforated zinc window immediately 

 below the top rim, so that they always remain nearly full without 

 running over. Through this precaution no fry are injured in 

 transference. One box is poured into each pail and two pails 

 into each conical yearling tank. These are filled ready on a cart 

 outside the hatching-house. They are carried down to the ponds 

 Nos. 17 to 32, and two tanks are emptied into the smaller ponds 

 and three tanks into the larger. The ponds at Craigend receive 



