TROUT AND GRAYLING. 59 
The spawning season for trout is, in most parts of England, 
from about the beginning of November until the end of January ; 
and when the fish are ready to deposit their eggs, they go in 
pairs to the shallow parts of the streams, and the female fish 
makes a hole, or rather a sort of trough in the gravel, and then 
lays her eggs in it. After this, the male fish sheds its milt over the 
eggs, and they become fertilized. They are then covered by the 
fish with gravel, and left to hatch out in due course, the time 
varying from 50 to 80 days, according to the temperature of the 
water. ‘The number of eggs varies with the size of the fish, but a 
trout of a pound in weight will lay about 800, and so on in 
proportion. Many things operate to the disadvantage of the 
eggs, for they are a favourite food of many fishes ; floods will wash 
them away and destroy them, and mud gets deposited on them, 
effectually killing them; birds look for and eat them, and the larve 
of some of the water insects destroy a great many more, so that in 
the end there are not more than about 5 per cent. hatched out. 
After hatching, the poor little fish are greedily devoured by their 
larger brethren, so that if, in addition to all this, fishermen are 
constantly taking fish out of a river, it is obvious that something 
must be done to keep up the stock. 
As is somewhat usual when looking back into the history of 
things in general, it has been found that the custom of artificially 
rearing fish was known and practised by the Chinese many 
centuries ago, and there is little doubt that it was also extensively 
carried on by the ancient Egyptians. But, although it is recorded 
that in the fifteenth century a monk, named Dom Pinchon, bred 
fish by placing the eggs in boxes lined with gravel, and placed in 
the river; and that a German, named Jacobi, in 1733, also 
artificially reared fish in much the same way, little or nothing 
more is heard about it until in 1836, Mr. John Shaw, of 
Drumlanrig, collected salmon eggs from the natural spawning 
beds and hatched them artificially, afterwards placing the fry, or 
young fish, in the river, and from this time the progress of fish 
culture has been very rapid. It is quite plain that it would be a 
difficult matter to collect eggs in large quantities from the rivers, 
