CHAPTER V. 



Young Trout. 



Appearance. — After the eo^o-s have laid in the water 

 from fifty to seventy-five days, according to the tempera- 

 ture, the Trout will begin to make their appearance, the 

 egg appears to be endowed with life, and the motions of 

 the Trout inside " kicking " against the shell to force their 

 way out can be plainly perceived without the assistance of 

 a microscope. At length the Trout forces his way through, 

 head first, or tail first, which ever may happen to be most 

 convenient, and the useless shell floats away down stream. 

 The Trout is then about one-half inch long, and the body 

 proper as thin as a needle ; the most prominent leatures 

 being a pair of eyes, huge in comparison with that of the 

 body, and a sac nearly as large as the egg. This sac is 

 attached to the belly of the fish, and contains food, which 

 the fish gradually absorbs. If the fish are hatched in fifty 

 days the sac lasts about thirty, if in seventy days, about 

 forty -five. At this period of their lives they will work 

 down into the crevices of the gravel and along the sides 

 of the troughs and stay there, nature seeming to give them 

 the instinct, at this weak and defenceless period of their 

 lives, when they are burdened with a load which they can 

 hardly carry, to get out of sight and out of the way of harm 

 as much as possible. At this stage of their growth many 

 curious deformities appear, more interesting perhaps to the 

 physiologist than to the Trout culturist. Some of the fry 

 will have two heads, and some will be united after the 

 manner of the Siamese Twins. A very common deformity 



