90 ARTIFICIAL REPRODUCTION OF FISHES. 



nearly ready to make its exit from the egg. To avoid their 

 further destruction, on the 25th of January we brought the 

 remaining eggs to our office, and placed them in a glass jar 

 and supplied them and the young fish with fresh water 

 daily. In this situation they have remained until the 

 present time, the young fish making their appearance from 

 day to day, the last one rupturing its oval envelope on the 

 10th day of February. 1 have seen as many as six make 

 their appearance in as many minutes. The temperature of 

 the water at the spring was 42' Fahrenheit. Since they 

 were brought to the office the water in which they were 

 kept has varied from 42" to 50". 



This experiment has afforded us one of the finest oppor- 

 tunities to be desired for the study of embryology, but 

 professional duties have prevented us from making as minute 

 observations as we could have wished. We^ have, however, 

 repeatedly and distinctly seen the blood corpuscles in the 

 returning veins enter the auricle of the heart and then 

 pass into the ventircles, and from thence into the aorta. 

 Altogether, it has afforded us one of the most pleasing and 

 instructive lessons in the early stages of animal existence 

 that we have ever had, and I hope that some person of more 

 accurate powers of observation, and having more leisure, 

 will avail himself of these facilities which are within the 

 reach of every man, and give to the world a more extended 

 statement of facts than I have been able to do. 



Another fact, in which all are interested, has been clearly 

 demonstrated. Every one who may be so fortunate as to 

 possess a spring of water, of moderate size, can rear this 

 charming fish in great numbers, and the streams that have 

 been depopulated by the untiring zeal of the angler, can be 

 replenished with a little trouble and at a small expense. 

 Such streams as are not suitable to the trout, can be stocked 

 with other choice varieties of fish with the same ease. 



The number of eggs produced by a single female trout in 

 one season, has been variously stated by different writers, 

 but it is a moderate statement to say that it is many thou- 



