138 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [April,, 



an observant nature, he was struck with the manner in which the 

 operation was carried on. He remarked that the male fish placed 

 itself alongside of the female in such a position that its head reached 

 to about the middle of the body of the latter. He further noticed, 

 that whilst the process of discharging the ova was going on, the 

 female turned somewhat on her side with a quivering sort of mo- 

 tion, and that the male emitted his milt simultaneously. It there- 

 fore occurred to him that by pressing the spawn out of the female, 

 and the milt from the male at the same time, in water, he would 

 obtain a quantity of fructified eggs, which, by being placed in con- 

 venient places in brooks, would in due time bring forth fish. No 

 sooner conceived than executed. He threw out his nets and causrht 

 a male and a female fish ready to spawn. His wife took the one^ 

 and he the other, and they squeezed their contents out into a bowl 

 of clean water. He then took the eggs and placed them in a 

 sheltered place in a stream where there were previously no trout. 

 The following summer he was rejoiced to see that it swarmed with 

 fish. Convinced, therefore, of the success of his plan, he con- 

 structed for himself a breeding-box close to his house ; and not- 

 withstanding the jeers and scoff's of his neighbors, who thought it 

 impious, to say the least, in interfering and meddling with things 

 which belonged to Nature alone, continued to breed fish every 

 autumn. Such was the first attempt at hatching ova in Norway 1 



I will now proceed to give a brief account of the hatching-ap- 

 paratus generally in vogue in that country, as communicated to 

 me by Professor Kasch. 



The case in which the hatching-boxes are placed (and which is 

 under shelter, so that the water does not freeze) is twelve feet 

 long, thirty-four inches wide inside, and five inches deep. The 

 bottom must be perfectly water-tight, and very evenly planed. 

 The sides are formed of single smooth-planed boards, which fit 

 tightly against the bottom, to prevent any leakage ensuing. The 

 uppermost end of the case, into which the water runs from 

 the pipe, is of the same height as the sides. The whole is divided 

 into five compartments, the first of which receives the water from 

 the pipe. This compartment is eighteen inches wide, while the 

 other four are each thirty inches wide. The partition-boards are 

 one inch lower than the sides of the case, and have holes bored in 

 them at a distance of two inches from the bottom, by means of a 

 hot wire. They are bored in two rows (vide fig. 1.), four below. 



