TROUT BREEDING. 59 



fully handled, may be two weeks on the way without injury. 

 Seth Green, to test their vitality, has kept eggs packed in 

 moss, in his hatching-house, for more than six weeks, and 

 then placed them in his troughs, where, in due course of time, 

 they hatched out. P. H. Christie, of Dutchess county, 

 New York, sent me last fall in an old tin tobacco box as 

 large as my three fingers, one hundred and twenty eggs by 

 mail ; which from delay by snow-storm and otherwise, were 

 a week on the way. On opening them they were all in 

 good condition but one, which had been mashed. A few 

 thousand eggs, if on the way but two or three days, of course 

 require less exterior protection after packing them in moss 

 than I have recommended above. If the moss becomes 

 dry, the eggs will undoubtedly perish. 



In manipulating fish by the side of the stream, if at a 

 distance from the troughs, the ova is necessarily carried in 

 water. Care should, therefore, be had that the vessel is 

 perfectly clean and free from any taint or odor that might 

 affect the eggs. Mr. Ainsworth informed me that he once 

 lost two or three thousand by carrying them in a new cedar 

 bucket, and Mr. Robinson, of Meredith Village, New 

 Hampshire, had many thousand lake trout ova spoiled from 

 the jolting they received in a rough wagon. 



On arrival at its place of destination, the box containing 

 ova should be carefully unpacked, the tin boxes or jars taken 

 out and set in the water of the hatching-house, or in a cool 

 cellar where they will not freeze. Each box or jar, after 

 removing the cover and taking off the top layer of moss, 

 should be immersed in a vessel of clear water and turned 



