THE OVA OF THE SALMONIDZ. 5 
of the salmon and trout, I have in spring found mature transparent ova detached 
from their ovaries, so included, when the aperture for the passage of the ova was 
closed, or almost so; but they were totally destitute of any appearance of vital 
development. 
In conclusion, granting the observations referred to—of the hatching of the 
ova of the trout in the manner described, viz., without milt, so far as was known, 
being brought into contact with the expressed ova—to be accurate in their detail, 
it may be asked, Does the result, as stated, warrant the inference that impreg- 
nation was effected before the expulsion of the ova? The box, we are informed, 
containing them was placed in a stream. What is more likely than that they 
might have been impregnated, so included but not insulated, by the spermatic 
granules, the spermatozoa of milt shed by some fish in the adjoining water? The 
diffusibility of these living granules—not the least remarkable of their quali- 
ties—seems to be favourable to this conclusion. 
LEsKeTH How, AMBLESIDE, 
January 4, 1854, 
VOL. XXI, PART I. B 
