TROUT BREEDING. 39 



a diminutive stream will supply, lie should deepen them 

 rather than increase the area. The deeper the water the 

 cooler it will he at the bottom in summer and the warmer 

 in winter. 



Stocking-Ponds. — The best time to procure brood trout, 

 of course, is when the streams are low, and the nearer 

 the time of spawning the more easily they are captured. 

 If on the spawn-beds, this is easily done in the small streams 

 they generally seek for that purpose. Last November I 

 was present when P. H. Christie, at the head of Fishkill 

 creek, in Dutchess county, New York, with only one assist- 

 ant, took one hundred and twenty in an hour and a half; 

 we manipulated those that were ready to spawn the same 

 afternoon, and got five thousand eggs from them. Two 

 weeks before, Mr. Christie, in going over the same length 

 of the stream, had taken four hundred before noon. The 

 best kind of net for the purpose, is what is termed a set or 

 stir-net. It has a straight strip about four feet long which 

 rests on the bottom, and a bow of ash or white oak, the 

 ends being inserted in the strip. The bag of the net should 

 be of coarse gunny cloth, to avoid injuring the gills of the 

 fish, as they are apt to stick their heads through the meshes 

 of the ordinary net, and so injure themselves in that vital 

 part. If taken with artificial flies of moderate size, they 

 are seldom hooked so as to injure them. 



Transporting Adult Trout. — A barrel is a good im- 

 promptu vessel for this purpose ; a piece four or five inches 

 square being sawed out of the head, and a strip nailed 

 across the piece, so that it can be replaced without a chance 



