ENEMIES OF FISH EGGS. 43 



pregnatecl at the time of spawning, or not 

 being caught by the gravel, are washed away 

 constantly by the stream. Then down come 

 the floods and overwhelm the nests with mud 

 and rubbish, or else sweep them bodily away, 

 level to the bed of the river. Here is a 

 case in point : Mr. Buist writes in "The 

 Field,^' March, 1863, "From eighteen salmon 

 and twenty-two grilse we had filled our 

 breeding-boxes with 275,000 ova. Imme- 

 diately after our ponds were filled the rivers 

 came out in great floods, which dispersed the 

 salmon, and, it is feared, that as these floods 

 continue till the end of December, the fine 

 appearance of fish would come to little 

 account when left to all the contingencies 

 of spawning in the rivers. The 310 fish not 

 spawned would all be ripe within ten days, so 



