75 



process of " slirting out " gravel with her tail, she moves 

 it away from the meshes of the coarse screen, and leaves 

 the bottom ol her nest an open network. On this she 

 emits her eggs, which are at the same time fecundated by 

 the emission of the milt of the male Trout lying by her 

 side. The eggs fall down into the nest, but pass through 

 the coarse wire screen, and are caught by the fine meshes 

 of the lower screen. There they are safe. The Trout 

 covers up the hole as usual. The hangers-on find no eggs 

 to devour, and go tlieir way. Another Trout may make 

 her nest in the same place, witliout disturbing the eggs 

 already laid, safe in their resting-place ; and when a plea- 

 sant day comes, and you feel in the humor, you may take 

 a pan of water, and taking off tlie upper screen, gradually 

 lift up the lower screen, brushing tlie eggs to one corner 

 with a feather, and tip them all at last into your pan, with- 

 out having exposed a single egg to the atmosphere, with- 

 out any trouble in handling the fish, and without any loss 

 of the breeders. These screens may be made as wide as 

 your raceway, if it is not over two or three feet, and of a 

 square shape. If your raceway is four feet wide, it is bet- 

 ter to have your screens each two feet square, as this size 

 is most convenient to handle when they are filled with 

 gravel. Enough of them can be placed in the race- 

 way to fill its whole length. One thing requires to be 

 noted here. It takes a much larger raceway, for this pro- 

 cess of natural impregnation, than it does when the eggs 

 are impregnated artificially. In the latter case you need 

 only room enough to make one Trout after another helieve 

 she is going to lay her eggs ; in the other you must have 

 room enough for her to carry out her intentions. 



Much discussion has taken place among fish-breeders and 

 others interested in the art, as to the comparative value of 

 the two methods, aside from the manual labor and loss of 

 fish involved. That is, by which of the two methods the 



