INTRODUCTION. 7 



thousand dollars, if you get only thirty cents apiece 

 for them ; and they will be poor trout if they do not 

 bring that. 



This calculation is very simple, but sound. The fact 

 is, that trout are produced in the first instance in such 

 enormous quantities, and at so little cost, they can be 

 raised with so little outlay of money, and they bring, 

 when matured, such a high price in the market, that all 

 you have to do is to keep the fish alive and growing, 

 and your success will be all you can wish. The prize 

 is already in your hand. All you are required to do 

 is to hold it. Hence the importance of making what 

 you have secure. It is important, because that alone 

 will bring you almost incredible returns ; and if secu- 

 rity alone will make you successful, it must be impor- 

 tant. 



2. The utmost degree of security is demanded, be- 

 cause, when losses do occur, it is generally on so large 

 a scale. The peculiar nature of the things you deal 

 with, namely, fish and running water, and the magnitude 

 of the numbers you operate with, are such that there is 

 hardly an occupation in the world where insecurity 

 is followed by such wholesale loss. For instance, the 

 stream that supplies fifty thousand fry is cut off a few 

 hours, we will suppose, in a hot night in summer, by 

 an accident. In the morning fifty thousand trout are 

 dead. It is not the loss of a few, as the farmers in 

 the provinces lose their sheep by the attack of the 

 black bear, or the spring lambs are killed by foxes, 

 but it is the whole fifty thousand. As an illustration 

 of this, a visitor, one July evening, about seven o'clock, 



