THE MAKING OF A HIMALAYAN TROUT WATER. 



325 



made large enough to let a fish swim away upstream and fend for himself 

 as soon as he is sufficiently advanced to do so. The great advantage of 

 this method is that fish are from the first dawn of consciousness " wild " fish 

 feeding on natural food. It eliminates the human element and all danger of 

 mistakes in feeding. It is a sine qua non that the water chosen should 

 abound in Natural Food, which roughly speaking will be the case wherever 

 water cress and other water plants grow : the spring should not exceed 55° 

 in temperature, and its maximum summer temperature should not exceed 

 63° F. It is necessary to employ a man to " pick over" the eggs in all 

 boxes distant from the Hatchery, i.e., to remove all " dead" eggs and ale- 

 vins. This method succeeds best in spring water with a constant tempera- 

 ture. Snow water varies immensely in temperature and is subject to spates 

 especially in March, and these variations kill alevins in large quantities. 



{iv) Care of alevins. — The hatching process in the Hatchery is exactly 

 similar. Alevins require no food as they live on the contents of the umbi- 

 lical sac which is figured in the illustration. (Fig. i). If possible I should 

 always rear only the 200 or 300 fry which were required for " brood stock " 

 and plant all ova in pahdri boxes. But this is not practicable. Some of 

 the best nurseries are inaccessible till March or April when the snow melts, 

 or are liable to be buried in avalanches. To stock these places one must 

 rear fry till they are three or four months old. 



{v) Care of the fry. — This is not an easy business. It means feeding 

 the trout as soon as the umbilical sac is nearly absorbed. Nature succeeds 

 in this process. Man is apt to make mistakes. We at any rate have 

 always had heavy losses during this period, and working as we do with 

 Indian labour we shall never eliminate the loss. We have found that barbel 

 flesh pounded into a very fine solution to the consistency of thin white soup 

 makes good feed. Our chief mistake has been to keep fish too long in the 

 Hatching boxes. They should in India be turned oiit directly they come 

 on the feed into a Rearing Pond with water 3 feet deep, a heavy flow and 

 plenty of room. This will ensure them the more natural food that is 



■Staples for bamboo 



Wooden frame- -."^^ 



Carrier 



Fiy.Itr 



