COMMON TROUT. 87 



Avhich appeared in 1763 in the form of a letter to the editor 

 of the Hanover Magazine. 



" SIR, I have thought it a duty incumbent on me to 

 lay my observations on the breeding of Trouts and Salmon, 

 as well as on other subjects, before the public. It would be 

 needless, and not to my present purpose, to mention every 

 trifling experiment which I made within the last sixteen 

 years, before my discovered invention ; and in twenty-four 

 years more afterwards, on the artificial increase of Trouts and 

 Salmon, perhaps I may be induced to give a more circum- 

 stantial account on this subject. The box, trough, or water- 

 bed in which the eggs, animated with the milk or sperma of 

 the male Trout, are scattered, needs no particular form, yet 

 it will be necessary to give a description how those which I 

 use are made. 



" SECTION I. 



"I.I had boxes made of various woods, but I found oak 

 to be the best, of about twelve feet long, one foot and a half 

 wide, and six inches deep. 



" 2. At the head of the trough where the water is to run 

 in, is laid a thick board about two and a half or three inches 

 thick, about a foot wide, and as long as the trough is wide ; 

 in the middle of this board is made a hole six inches long, 

 and about four inches wide in the clear, with a ravet on all 

 the four sides of this hole, about an inch and a half wide and 

 deep, so as to admit a square frame, with an aperture of six 

 inches by four inches, or of the same size as the hole, which 

 frame must be covered with a brass grating of a moderate 

 strength, and close enough to prevent the smallest water- 

 shrew from passing through, otherwise all the spawn and 

 young fry will be in danger of being devoured by them. 



" 3. Near the middle of this box or trough lay another 

 piece of thick board across, as long as the width of the 



