284 How to obtain it.. 
have seen them do it, but the eggs will in such a case. probably be 
lost to the river. And it is better that they should be, for they 
would most likely only have produced a poor lot of fish. There 
is such a strong migratory instinct implanted in the salmon, such 
a desire naturally to push up rivers, that when I see them just 
entering a river and then depositing their ova, I am led to the 
conclusion that probably some of these may not be the best fish 
from which to propagate. I have observed something of the 
kind amongst trout, fish that are not in “good form,” and will in 
consequence deposit their ova anywhere, so to speak. 
Then as regards the fish that push up to the extreme head 
waters of a river. The migratory instinct may be a good thing, 
but there is an old saying that reminds us that it is possible to 
have “too much” even “of a good thing.” My experience is. 
that in some rivers at least these fish are late spawners. They 
are often also small in size; it is perhaps somewhat natural that’ 
they should be so. Their size and the extra energy which they 
exhibit points to the fact that they may be young fish, and fish 
culture teaches us that some young fish spawn later than the older 
ones. *- We know also that eggs taken from young fish are not so 
good by a great deal as those taken from middle-aged fish. Such 
points as these seem to have been very much overlooked in the 
past by many collectors, and yet to the fish culturist they are 
known to be of vital importance. 
Times and seasons for collecting ova have often been beyond 
consideration ; that is to say, because eggs could not be got at 
the right time and place, owing perhaps to floods or other causes, 
therefore the hatching boxes have been filled with any eggs that 
could be obtained, irrespective of the source from which they 
came, or the time when they were taken. Now if there be any 
lesson that fish culturists have learned it is that this sort of thing 
will not do. I have learned it for one, and that years ago, and at 
considerable cost to myself, for I have had the battle to fight very 
often single-handed, whilst those who ought to have rendered 
help often ran away instead. 
To get on the “wrong tack” in fish culture often means to. 
get far out of one’s “course” ; indeed, there are. many who have. 
held on until they have found themselves on a ‘lee shore,” and 
