lyo TRANSACTIONS iSqQ-'oO 



weeks old, before being planted, and should be more sturdy and 

 robust than the fry exposed immediately after hatching, on the 

 natural spawning beds. Nor is the objection better founded that 

 the fry are suddenly transferred from the warmer water of the 

 hatchery to the colder water of the lake or river outside. Re- 

 cords, which have been kept, show that the water flowing rapidly 

 and plentifully through the tanks is more equable and cold than 

 the shallow waters outside. The fry, it is further contended, are 

 untaught to seek shelter, and must be gobbled up by watchful 

 enemies. This cannot be so. The eggs are all taken from wild 

 fish, and the young inherit the instincts of their parents. Hence 

 when the fry have been carefully watched at the time of planting, 

 they have been noticed to act with alertness and intelligence, and 

 at once dart off to shelter. All the stock objections are made in 

 ignorance of the real facts, for the facts all prove the very op- 

 posite of the theories set forth bj^ critics, usually arm-chair 

 critics. 



Fish-culture, at this late date, needs no advocacy or defence, 

 yet recent unsolicited testimony may be adduced, sent to me as 

 affording evidence of the success of the government hatcheries. 

 A lake near Three Rivers, P. Q. , was planted' several years ago. 

 It abounds at the present time with fine lake trout, says the 

 member of parliament, who is my informant, although these fish 

 did not formerl}^ occur in it at all. A lake in Victoria county, 

 Ontario, I have recently been informed by residents, is alive with 

 trout consequent on being stocked by means o,f fry. Most visitors 

 to the river Saguenay know the Tadoussac Hatchery, and the 

 small lake adjacent to the building abounds in small salmon a few 

 pounds in weight, the result of the surplus quantities of fry plac- 

 ed there by the hatchery officer. " On one occasion," says the 

 officer in an official report ' ' I permitted the Bishop of Chicoutimi, 

 to fish in the hatchery lake. He was accompanied by the Rev. 

 Mr. Mathieu, Superior of the Quebec Seminary, and the Rev. 

 Mr. Lemieux, of Tadoussac, they were astonished at the number 

 of young salmon that could be caught " A most convincing case 

 came to my notice, however, on the testimony of a gallant and 

 facetious member of the House of Commons, who bitterly com- 

 plained that a New Brunswick lake, stocked with brook trout at 

 much cost, had received also som^ Great lyake trout from a 



