THE SALMON 205 
lend themselves more readily to artificial propagation than do 
most others. First catch your salmon, male and female, and 
the operation of gently pressing the ova out of the one and 
impregnating it with the milt of the other is almost as 
simple as gathering gooseberries. In both cases you must be 
careful not to take what is unripe. All the contents of a 
salmon’s ovary never are ready for shedding at the same time ; 
if you strip more than will come away with gentle pressure, 
you injure the fish beyond recovery. Neither is there a very 
intricate mystery in the subsequent management of the ova 
and the resulting fry. Even temperature, scrupulous cleanli- 
ness, an unfailing supply of pure water, and constant attention 
to the removal of dead or unsound eggs, is nearly all that is 
required to ensure an abundant hatch of alevins, which can be 
reared and fed as easily as so many minnows. But to turn 
fry, as soon as they have absorbed the umbilical bag, into the 
river they are intended to replenish, is to expose them at their 
most defenceless stage to the rapacity of innumerable foes. 
Yet this is too commonly the practice. It cannot be impressed 
too strongly upon owners of salmon-fishings that the labour 
of collecting and hatching ova is labour wasted, unless the fry 
are afterwards reared, protected, and fed in suitable ponds 
until they are ready to go to the sea. ‘This adds tenfold to 
the expense and scale of the undertaking, and it becomes a 
question, whereon opinions greatly differ, whether the money 
and labour expended would not produce better results if 
applied to the protection of fish on the natural spawning- 
grounds. ‘The considerations in favour of artificial propagation 
are as follows :— 
1. The assurance that all the ova are effectively fertilised. 
The extent to which this is secured under natural conditions 
has been the matter of some doubt, and is hardly capable of 
demonstration. Personally, I am not disposed to distrust the 
scheme of Nature, which provides so effectively and elaborately 
for the fertilisation of all animal and vegetable ovaries. 
