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April 1, 1901.] THE TEOPICAL 
every possible precaution taken to ensure the safe 
transit of the future trout from the seaboard to 
Rawalpindi. Meanwhile, for the road portion of 
the journey, Mr Dliahjiiidboy had prepared a 
special torga, and arrangements had been made 
wich the tehsildars all along the road to Kashrl)ir 
tor an ample supply of ice and snow at each 
halting station. The Collector of Customs, tod, at 
Karachi had also promised to see that there was 
no delay in clearing the eggs. All these careful 
preparations were unfortunately rendered useless 
by the action of the home forwarding agent who 
actually sent nut the ova in a slow steamer, 
unprovided either with ice or a cool room, so 
that there was nothing to take over at Karachi 
but a mass of putrid eggs. The Duke of Bedford, 
however, has again come forward with a fresh pre- 
sent of ova, which reached Bombay a few weeks 
sincein the Caledonia, but regarding the arrival of 
which in Kashmir we are at present without any 
information. Pending the receipt of tliis, hoiv- 
ever, it niay be of interest to consider the 
chances of successfully acclimatising Englisii 
or American trout in the lakes and rivers of 
the Himalaya. 
Captain Godfrey thinks that there is eveiy 
chance of success. He points out that those in- 
terested in the present venture have several im- 
portant points in their favour. These are : (1) 
water supplied in pipes from a glacier-fed stream 
filtered in the reservoir ; (2) ice and snow within 
easy reacli costing even in summer only two days' 
coolie wage for a man's load ; (3) a commnnir.y 
of sportsmen always in the country, from whom 
assistance may be relied on ; (4) a temperate 
climate little dissimilar to that of Switzerland or 
Scotland, except for a short hot weather ; and 
(5) the assistance of the Kashmir State otiicials. 
There is a good deal no doubt in this list of advan- 
tages, but yet the Kashmir Fishing Club would do 
well not to be too confident. Success in matters 
of this kind is .not to be expected at the outset. 
We say this, not for the purpose of throwing cold 
water on the scheme, but rather with a view to 
encouraging those interested to persevere in their 
attempts even though they be met at the outset 
with many unmitigated failures. It was only 
after numerous failures that the English trout 
was at length successfully acclimatised in places 
such as New Zealand and Tasmania. In the 
Nilgiri Hills, too, there have been many endea- 
vours to introduce the English trout, but so far 
with practically no real success. A careful ex- 
amination of all the various ponds and streams 
in that tlistrict wherein trout have been from 
time to time deposited, lately revealed their almost 
complete absence. A few unhealthy-looking fisn 
were, it is true to be found, the sole remnant of 
the thousands imported. But there had been ap- 
parently no attempt on the part of these to per- 
petuate their species, and the Nilgiri attempts, so 
far as our information goes, must be written 
down a failure. It remains to be seen what will 
happen in Kashmir. It would be ditlieulc to 
exaggerate the nature and extent of the many 
obstacles to be overcome before trout can be 
successfully acclimatised. Kashmir presents cer- 
tain solid advantages for an attempt of this nature 
but the list of these as presented by Captain 
Godfrey does not necessarily ensure success. We 
will assume, for instance, that the ova are landed 
in Kashmir in a healthy condition, that is, with 
the usual percentaefe of bad or unfruitlnl eggs, 
^his is no small assumption by the way. The next 
AGRICULTURIST. 675 
thing to do is to hatch out the eggs. Here un- 
doubt. dly ;he supply of pure cold water mentioned 
by Cavi-iia Godfrey will come in useful. Such a 
supply is the very first desideratum in trout cul- 
ture. If all goes well the fish in due course are 
hatched out. For a certain period after their 
e'ltry into this world they feed on the contents 
of the umbilical sac with which nature provides 
tiiem. There soon comes a time, however, when 
this source is pretty nearly exhausted and it is 
necessary for the young fry to obtain other food. 
The glacier water will certainly contain no food, 
so th.iifc recoiirsa must be had to other means. 
Artificial feeding is seldom satisfactory, and the 
difficulties in carrying it out would be enormously 
increased in the ease of a country like Kashmir, 
especially as there is no skilled professional pisci- 
culturist on the spot. It will be necessary there- 
fore to fall back on the natural food present in 
minute particles in the water of' the lake or 
some neighbouring stream which runs, not 
througli a rocky channel, . but through 
weeds. Tliere ought to be plenty of such water 
available for the Kashmir experiments, and ,no 
doubt there will be plenty of food in it. The. 
question which remains to be settled, however, 
is whether such food will be suitable and accept- 
able to English trout fry. If it is, well and good. 
The experiment will have advanced to a notable 
extent, and barring accidents, the young trout will 
soon grow to a respectable size. Here the tempt- 
ation to turn the trout at large may be felt, but 
it is to be hoped will be strenuously resisted. 
Turning them out at such an early stage would 
simply mean that they would never be seen again. 
The Kashmir lakes and rivers swarm with the 
so-called Kashmir trout, a fish of the most pro- 
nounced cannibal tendencies, and running to over 
twenty pounds in weight. These fish would cer- 
tainly soon make short work of sucli interesting 
strangers as yearling English trout. Even if 
thousands of two-year-old trout were turned out 
into unenclosed Kashmir waters, it is doubtful if 
any of them would be met with again. The extent 
of water is enormous, and the cannibal instincts of 
the native fish, together with the inroads of the 
niahseer during the summer months, would easily 
account for their early disappearance. No ; the 
only way to go to work with any chance of success 
is to get out from England relays of ova. These 
must be hatched out in succession and kept in 
separate partitions until a respectable size. 
They could then be turned out into a carefully 
partitioned-off part of, say, the Dal lake, care 
being taken that only fish much of the same size 
were placed in the same position in order to pre- 
vent canniDalism. These partitioned-off' spaces of 
natural water could be gradually enlarged as the 
trout grew larger. In time the fish might begin 
to breed, and then the success of the experiment 
would be assured. The management would be 
able to secure as many ova as they required on 
the spot, without having to go through the 
risky and expensive operation of importing 
them from Europe. It would then be possible to 
turn out from time to time some of the larger fish 
into open waters, and as the hatching and breed- 
ing operations would be kept up and more and more 
lish turned out into the open, a time would event- 
ually arrive when it would be possible to truthfully 
assert that the .English trout had at length been 
thoroughly acclimatised in India. 
Exactly wliat this woirld mean, it would be 
djiiicult fco exaggerate- Thq attractions of Kash* 
