GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 223 



in summer, when they are fat and the water is warm, 

 they actually seem to die before they are hurt. 



Rough handling is very often the cause of death ; 

 but it is a very unnecessary and inexcusable cause. 

 All the handling that needs to be done can, ninety-nine 

 times in a hundred, be done without hurting the fish. 

 The suggestions given in the chapter on spawning 

 trout will perhaps be a sufficient guide on this point. 

 I would by all means dissect at least one fish, and find 

 where the vitals lie, and just how the viscera are 

 packed together inside. You will find you can, by 

 practice, squeeze a fish very hard, if you know where 

 the vitals are, without killing it. Always be careful 

 not to scrape off the slime from the skin, for where 

 the slime is off fungus will grow, and the result is 

 death. 



5. Keep your trout well sorted. I know that it is 

 often said, " Feed your trout well, and they will not eat 

 each other." Perhaps they will not, but it is not pru- 

 dent to trust them. It is a risk, to say the least of it, 

 to keep fish of different sizes in a herd together, and, 

 being a risk, it ought to be avoided on principle. If 

 any one doubts whether actual mischief is done by it, 

 let him put five hundred trout of different sizes in a 

 pond for a year, and take them out at the end of that 

 time and count them over again. I think he will be 

 convinced. This is something that some trout growers 

 are altogether too careless about. They would not 

 think of keeping foxes and fowls together, even if the 

 foxes were well fed, yet they run equal risk with their 

 trout, and think nothing of it. I have seen more than 



