1864.] ON PISCICULTURP. 127 



salmon, trout, &;c. ? The same thing that happens to the com- 

 mon fowl happens to the fish. In the case of the fowl, we ourselves 

 eat many thousands of eggs, and we know how good they are for 

 various culinary purposes. And as in the case of the fowl, so also 

 with the fish-esrors : there are enemies innumerable that seek to 

 destroy them ; even the water itself is occasionally antagonistic to 

 their well-being. 



First of all, then, many of the fish's eggs do not get at all im- 

 pregnated, or, not becoming properly buried in the gravel, are 

 washed away by the stream. In proof of this I would mention 

 the following : There are no good spawning-places in the Thames ; 

 the fish — and the Thames trout are really fine fish — are therefore 

 obliged to deposit their eggs in the rapids in the centre of the 

 stream. Some of the nests where trout had been actually seen to 

 deposit their eggs have lately been carefully examined, and not a 

 single egg could be found : they had all been carried away by the 

 stream, or devoured by insects, of which thousands were found in 

 the nest. A friend, writing from Hampshire, says that he has 

 examined the nests where the salmon have been seen to spawn, but 

 no eggs could be found. Even supposing the eggs have been 

 properly deposited in the nests, down come the floods and over- 

 whelm the place. Thus, my friend Mr. T. Ashworth informs me, 

 that at the beginning of the season over 275,000 eggs were taken 

 from salmon and placed in his hatching-boxes. Immediately after 

 this was done, the waters arose, and of the eggs which had 

 been exposed to their violence hardly one could have survived. 

 Then again, we have the reverse of floods, i. e. the droughts, 

 which leave the eggs exposed ; or, as it happens in Hampshire, the 

 fish lay their eggs in what is called " the drawings " ; the water is 

 let ofi" them, and the eggs of course perish. Fish again are great 

 enemies to their own eggs. I have myself frequently seen two or 

 three small trout hiding behind the nest, and as the female deposited 

 her eggs, swim after and eat them. Trout have also been often 

 observed, with their tails in the air, robbing the nests. Even 

 females will eat their own eggs. What wonder then that trout 

 should be so scarce when both father and mother devour their 

 ofifspring. I myself have frequently, from the maws of trout, 

 taken eggs which they had stolen from the spawning-beds ; and my 

 friend Mr. Ashworth tells me that he has actually hatched out 

 500 eggs taken from the mouth of one fish-robber. 



