STORMONTFIELD. 253 



III 



STORMOXTFIELD. 



The experiments, or rather operations, in the breeding of 

 young salmon at Stormontfield, on the Tay, were com- 

 menced in 1853, at the instance of Dr. Esdaile and 

 Mr. Ashworth. A gentle slope from a mill-lade, running 

 parallel with and sixteen feet above the Tay, was chosen, 

 whence a sufficient supply of water could be obtained. 

 Three hundred boxes were laid down in twenty-five 

 parallel rows, each box being partly filled with clean 

 gravel and pebbles, and protected at each end by per- 

 forated zinc. Filtering-beds were formed at the head and 

 foot of the rows, and the boxes were charged with 300,000 

 ova by the 23rd of December. 



On the 31st of March, 1854, the first ova were hatched. 

 A pond had been provided for the fry ; this pond was 223 

 feet long, by 112 feet in the broadest part. It was sub- 

 sequently found to be far too small. By June the greater 

 part of the fry were admitted into the pond, being then 

 about an inch and a half long. There they were fed with 

 boiled liver daily, and on the 24th of May, or nearly 

 twelve months after their being hatched, a large portion 

 of them, having assumed the smolt scale, left the pond 



