In many ways nature is apparently very wasteful, and in nothing is this more marked than in the case of the salmon. Probably not more than one egg in a thousand produces a fish which reaches the smolt stage, and a still smaller proportion grows to the spawning stage. This great mortality which occurs among the eggs and young fish when left to nature may be very considerably reduced by artificial means, so that a very fair proportion of the eggs deposited by the female fish will not only be hatched out successfully, but the little fish will reach the smolt stage safely and have a good chance of reaching the sea. How successful artificial intervention may be has been proved over and over again in the United States and in Canada. In the case of more than one river in Canada, the artificial propagation and protection of salmon has resulted in what is apparently the actual manufacture of a salmon river, yielding an annual haul of fish far beyond anything known in Europe, from a river which before yielded no salmon, or hardly any. These operations, carried out by the State, were of course far beyond anything which could be undertaken by the amateur, but I am sure that if several riparian owners on a salmon river carried on artificial hatching and rearing operations for several seasons, a marked increase in the number of fish in the river would ensue. The objection of most people to this course is that it is unfortunately only too apparent that they are benefiting chiefly, not the rod fisherman, but the netsman at the mouth of the river. The different artificial means used to help nature in producing a good head of salmon in a river vary chiefly in the amount of the help given by each. It will suffice to say that the best is that which provides for the protection and feeding of the young fish till it is ready to take its first journey to the sea. The reason of this is obvious, as every day passed in safety is a day gained, both in strength and in power of self-preservation.