How to obtain it. 229 
is quite absorbed. Others, again, advocate their being fed a short 
time before the final absorption of the sac. 
I think it may be taken for granted in the case of young 
trout, that when nature teaches them to look for food it is 
right that they should have some given to them. Like all other 
creatures, they have to learn to eat, and they do not make much 
“fist” at it at first. Indeed it would be somewhat surprising if 
they did. It will soon be evident to an observer that they will 
seize any particles floating past, no matter what they may consist 
of, and most of these, instead of being swallowed, are ejected 
again, and this by one fish after another as they drift along the 
current. The little fish have not learnt to know what is food and 
what is not, and at first they will snap at anything and everything 
that they see in the water, provided it is moving. 
It is rather a critical period of the trout’s life, for though 
there should be very few if any deaths amongst them at this stage, 
yet there may be heavy loss later on if they be mismanaged when 
just commencing to feed. Now is the time to train them to eat 
the food upon which it is intended to rear them. I have seen 
them a few weeks later in life refuse some of the choicest food 
that could be provided for them, simply because they had been 
trained to eat something else, and had got accustomed to it. They 
can be trained at this period to eat almost anything. The 
question very naturally arises, What is best for them ? 
I believe I am right in saying that the best food for 
young trout has not been discovered yet ; that is to say, the means 
of procuring it in sufficient quantity to provide for the wants of a 
large quantity of them. If we open the stomachs of a number of 
wild trout fry we find them filled with various Lxtomostraca and 
other minute creatures which inhabit our waters. Ina state of 
nature they can usually obtain a supply of these. In a stream, 
for instance, where we find a young trout here and there a yard 
or so apart there is a chance of sufficient food turning up to keep 
the little fish going. They are continually on the look-out for it, 
and each individual fish takes up its station in some suitable 
place where there is a current or an eddy, where it is comparatively 
safe from its enemies, and yet where an abundance of food is 
brought to it by the current. In a hatchery tank, where there are 
