OUR RIVER HARVESTS, 279 



favourable-looking spot he puts a hundred or so young 

 fish into the water. No sooner are they in the river 

 than they act as freely and boldly as if they had passed 

 all their little lives in its stream, dive down at once, 

 and ensconce themselves among the pebbles. This 

 instinct is most valuable, as the fish know by its 

 wondrous power how to separate from each other, and 

 take up their abode in little nooks and crannies, where 

 not even the voracious perch can get at them at all 

 events, not without an expenditure of labour which that 

 fish is not at all likely to employ. 



The plan of putting them into the river in little 

 detachments is followed because it is found that when- 

 ever the little fish are thrown into the water wholesale, 

 the larger river fish make a great feast on their little 

 visitors, charge fiercely at the crowd, and more than 

 decimate .their ranks before they can conceal them- 

 selves, their very numbers preventing them from find- 

 ing the shelter which their instinct urges them to 

 seek. 



They are very pretty, these little fish, and even in 

 their very young days possess sufficient individuality to 

 mark each species. The young salmon fry, for example, 

 are rather long and slender in proportion to their 

 width, and their hue is ruddy brown, barred with dark 

 patches on the sides. The young trout are shorter, 

 thick and dark, and the barred surface is perfectly 

 conspicuous even when the little creatures do not 

 measure one inch in length. The char are light grey 



