DESPATCHING LIVE TROUT. 85 



stacked, and keeps well until May, and reduces the temperature of 

 water much more rapidly than ice. 



One man is now stationed on the lorry, a second stands at the 

 door of the despatch-house, a third holds a short-handled landing- 

 net, and a fourth gently presses the end of the first preparing-box 

 forward. So soon as the bottom of the box engages the front 

 roller on the stand, it moves through its own weight, and, steadied 

 by the hand, gently tilts up, discharging nearly the whole water 

 through the outlet screen. The box is now quite light and easily 

 reversed, the fish being poured out from one of the top corners 

 into the net, which is handed to the man at the door, who passes it 

 on to the lorry. The next box is treated in the same manner, 

 and, on the second net being passed to the man at the door, the 

 first net is returned ready for the third box. When all the tanks 

 in the first lorry are filled, the numbers of those in the next lorry 

 are checked, and the lids removed from the corresponding 

 preparing-boxes, thus making a mistake in despatch almost 

 impossible. 



Two minutes are allowed for each thousand trout travelling in 

 big tanks, and three minutes for each thousand trout travelling 

 in small. As each lorry receives its fish, a man with a mallet 

 fastens the lids by driving home the wooden pins. Three and a 

 half ton weight of fish, in their travelling tanks, are frequently 

 despatched under fifteen minutes from the time the first lid is 

 removed from the preparing-tanks in the despatch-house until 

 the last horse has started from the loading-bank. Such is the 

 advance trout-farming has made in the last few years at Howie- 

 toun. 



