158 MAKING A FISHERY. 



first they had been regularly fed, it is, to say 

 the least, unexpected, and tends to show how 

 little the natural instincts of the trout are 

 affected by the seemingly unnatural methods of 

 the pisciculturist. 

 Educating to At first the food drifted down unnoticed ; 



presently one troutlet bolder than the rest would 

 dart up and take up a small quantity ; gradually 

 others would follow suit, until in a few days 

 all of them would feed freely. When this was 

 reported to me, I arranged to assist at the next 

 evening's meal, and was most gratified to see 

 how admirably everything worked. As soon as 

 the mixture of minced liver and lights fell on 

 the water, I was, however, astonished to see 

 that, instead of sinking like the horse flesh and 

 mussels, it floated, and remained on the surface 

 as far as the eye could see. At once it occurred 

 to me that if there is anything whatever in the 

 theory that feeding fry or yearlings on meat 

 tends to teach them to seek their sustenance 

 under water, and make them bottom feeders, 

 this particular form of animal food must educate 

 them to come to the surface. 



If anything could make artificially bred and 

 artificially reared trout surface feeders, it should 

 be such treatment as this, and, unless the whole 

 education theory is fallacious, should produce a 

 new generation of more freely rising fish than 



