ON THE ARTIFICIAL, PROPAGATION OF SALMON. 45? 



brood, may assume the migrator}^ dress, and be ready to remove to the sea. 

 We propose to take such measures as will allow us to watch this narrowly, 

 and also if the migratory dress be assumed, to mark a large number before 

 turning out. 



Note to Report on Stormontfield Ponds. — The importance of arti- 

 ficial impregnation, and the general question of changes and migration, is also 

 being attended to elsewhere, and we trust, that as soon as the natural history, 

 the " rise and progress " of the Salmon shall have been completed, a similar 

 series of experiments will be instituted, to determine that of other migratory 

 fishes which have not yet been bred or kept in confinement. Mr. Shaw bred 

 and reared the " Sea Trout " of the Solway, and we have given a series of 

 figures of this fish from the length of an inch to a weight of 4| lbs. * ; but 

 the fish of the Tweed, known as the " Bull Trouf," has never been examined 

 through its different stages, and except those now in the Duke of Rox- 

 burghe's ponds at Floors, has never been bred in confinement. 



Ponds similar in construction to those at Stormontfield were erected 

 in 1855 by the Duke of Roxburghe near Floors, and upon writing to his 

 Grace regarding them, every information has been kindly supplied by 

 himself, and a detailed account, at his desire, has been drawn up by the 

 Superintendent of the Tweed River Police ; and as this bears so much 

 upon our subject, it is thought that some extracts from it will not now be 

 out of place : — 



" The pond is situate on a small rivulet called Stodrig Burn, and is about 

 sixty yards from the Tweed, within the policies of Floors Castle, near Kelso. 

 The breeding boxes or troughs I caused to be made similar to those at Stor- 

 montfield, and they consist of four, laid parallel, 18 feet long, subdivided 

 into four compartments, 4-^ feet long, the only division between the troughs 

 being a l^-inch deal, instead of the gravel walk as at Stormontfield. The 

 water, which is raised by a dam at the upper end, is made to fall into a deep 

 trough which adjoins the breeding troughs, from which it is as equally dis- 

 tributed, and after flowing over the gravel, it falls into an aqueduct 18 inches 

 wide, and which is carried round the margin of the receiving pond, which is 

 oval-shaped, and about 30 feet long by 15 wide, in which there is about 

 18 inches of water, and into it the aqueduct or canal discharges itself. 



" The pond was constructed in the latter months of 185.3, but owing to 

 circumstances, it was not stocked that season. 



" On the 4tli and 5th of March, 1855, the produce of five fish (three of 

 them grilses) was impregnated with the milt procured from two male fish, 

 and deposited in the hatching troughs. The spring was very cold, and the 

 temperature of the water very low ; however, the ova appeared to thrive 

 nicely, and on the 27th of April the young were formed and moving, and 

 from their appearance, I expected they should have been hatched in the 

 course of another week ; but when I examined them on the 4th of May, I 

 found, to my astonishment, that not a single ovum was in a healthy hatching 

 state, but thousands of them had in the course of the week become opake, 

 and the backbone and eyes of the little creatures could be easily seen upon 

 dividing the ovum with a penknife. The cause of this mishap it was impos- 

 sible to trace, but there is much reason to believe that it was caused by a 

 large quantity of lime being used as manure upon the lands through which 

 the rivulet which supplies the ponds flows. 



"On the 17th, 18th, and 19th of March this year (1856), I had a quantity 

 of spawn dug from a shallow bank in the Tweed, near Galashiels, part of 

 * Illustrations of Scottish Salmonidse. 



