How to obtain it. 283 
On another river I was shown a pool in which many fish were 
frequently imprisoned, and where the owner did not wish to incur 
the expense of a fish-way. These fish were also taken out by 
poachers. Nothing could have been much simpler than the best 
method of dealing with this pool without making a pass. The fish 
were very easily taken out, and I advised that they should be 
lifted over the obstruction. A horse and cart a few times a year 
would have done the work at a very trifling cost, and would have 
saved the fish, or if preferred the stream itself could have been 
made, by means of a wheel and elevator, to lift over every fish as 
soon as it came up. I am satisfied of one thing, and that is that 
it would often pay a great deal better to lift the fish over an 
obstruction than to watch them, for the salmon poacher is up to 
all sorts of tricks, and often pays more attention to watching the 
movements of the bailiff than of the fish. .He can quickly deal 
with the latter when he gets his opportunity, and it is for that he 
watches. It is all very well to say that poaching is kept down on 
this or that river, or that the poachers do not get many fish. I 
know the case is often very different, for I have made a special 
study of the poacher, his habits and handiwork, and he is not by 
any means to be despised. 
One great advantage that is to be gained by impounding the 
fish is the opportunity it gives for the selection of the fittest. 
Often under the present system eggs are so difficult to procure 
that any fish that come to hand are gladly taken, and it some- 
times happens that milters cannot be obtained, and eggs are lost 
or go unimpregnated, to give endless trouble in the hatcheries 
afterwards. One man once told me very seriously that he had 
under such circumstances used the milt of a trout, and he 
evidently thought he was giving me a good wrinkle by tendering 
the information. I heard of another somewhat similar case in 
which sea trout milt was used. The sooner the work is put upon 
a proper basis the better will it be. 
I have often known salmon ova to be collected from any 
part of a stream where the fish could be got at most readily, 
sometimes being taken from the extreme head waters, and 
sometimes close above the tideway, or even in the brackish water 
itself. Salmon will occasionally spawn in brackish water, for I 
