STOCKING 383 



the water dealt with. For instance, Itchen river water 

 has hardly any iron in it, and if trout which had 

 travelled in Itchen river water were first tipped out 

 into a stream strongly or perhaps only slightly im- 

 pregnated with iron the result would be alarming ; nor, 

 of course, is iron the only difference which may exist." 



I take it, too, that fish bred in very soft water would 

 be prejudicially affected by being turned out of this 

 into very hard water and vice versa. 



Stocking with feeding-fry is often described as the 



most inexpensive method in 



Stocking with feeding- general vogue. To my mind 



fry. it is absolutely useless, and 



a man may as well throw his 

 cash into the sea as waste it in this way. The ova 

 have been hatched in troughs and the alevins, carefully 

 watched until they have absorbed the umbilical sac, 

 are induced to feed on finely grated liver or some of 

 the many fish-foods prepared. When they have com- 

 menced to feed they are stylQA feeding-fry, and in this 

 state are delivered. When turned into the river they 

 are in the most helpless condition, quite unable to seek 

 for their food and absent in experience of such every- 

 day matters as the mere action of the currents in a 

 stream. Then, too, they are at the stage when even 

 in a state of nature the mortality is at the very highest, 

 and with their total want of knowledge of the dangers 

 to which they are exposed their chance is indeed 

 a desperate one. I do not think that the late 

 Mr. Andrews' opinion, often expressed to me, that 



