MANAGEMENT OF TROUT AND SALMON EGGS. 391 



To each box must be fitted a wooden lid with a hole 

 cut for the entrance of the water ; by means of the lid 

 the eggs are kept in darkness, for eggs will never do 

 well if exposed to the light. 



Put in your eggs, then turn on the water, and now 

 comes the most difficult part of the whole operation. 



Having on one occasion a valuable lot of eggs which 

 I was particularly anxious to hatch out well, I sent for 

 my attendant, and made him promise faithfully to obey 

 any instructions I gave. " Well then," I said, " will 

 you be kind enough to do notliing at all, simply leave the 

 eggs alone." By this I mean that it does not hurt the 

 eggs to look at them, but it does hurt them to be 

 continually pulling them about. Nevertheless, the lids 

 of the boxes should be removed every morning, and 

 the dead eggs carefully picked out. Dead eggs can be 

 easily told from live ones. They turn a marble white 

 and are quite opaque. 



To show the elasticity as well as toughness of the 

 liorn-like shells of the eggs, drop one on the ground — it 

 will bounce up like an india-rubber ball. It will also 

 stand a considerable weight upon it. This is a beau- 

 tiful provision to prevent the egg and its delicate con- 

 tents being crushed in the gravel nest in which the 

 13arent fish deposit their eggs. Should a very heavy 

 fi'ost come on, place a covering of straw, hay, or sack- 

 ing over the boxes and the supply pipe ; the cold will 

 not hurt the eggs, but if the water ceases to run, they 

 will all be in great peril. 



When I first began fish breeding, the great difficulty 

 i^^as fo obtain eggs. Those who wanted them had to 

 go out to collect them. Salmon and trout eggs are not 

 ^picked up out of the bed of the river like hen's eggs off 

 their nests. 



