THE HISTORY OP FISH-CULTURE. 487 



It is a Avell-knpwn fact that fish do not deposit all their spawn at once 

 The eggs do not all arrive together at a state of maturity. When left 

 to herself, the female returns several times to the place of spawning^ 

 where the male always follows her, ami it is only after a certain number 

 of days that the delivery of the eggs is complete. Although it has been 

 already remarked that only the ripe eggs leave the ovary and find tbeir 

 way into the abdominal cavity, yet the advice was always given to effect 

 the artificial fecundation at once by forcing out the spawn by pressure 

 on the sides of the belly of the female. Without doubt, this iiractice^ 

 in many cases, was attended with a violence as injurious to the develop- 

 ment of a great number of the products as to the health of the animals 

 thus operated upon. 



Struck with these inconveniences, and convinced of the advantages 

 always following from a strict imitation of nature, M. Millet took pains 

 to gather the eggs only in portions and in several days, as they became 

 coiupletel}" ripe, and to let them fall into the water simultaneously with the 

 milt of the male. As captivity has often a bad effect upon the genera- 

 tive functions of fishes, M. Millet onlj^ takes them at the moment of 

 making the fecundations, and restores them to the river immediately 

 after, at the same time tethering them with a pack-thread passed 

 through the gills. They li^e very well in this condition, and do not 

 perceptibly' suffer from it. M. Millet has also sometimes made use of 

 artificial spawning holes, which call to mind those of Lund, but are more 

 perfect. These are a kind of double-bottomed cages, the first consist- 

 ing of an open frame-work of bars, the second of a movable sieve of 

 metallic cloth. The females, by rubbing against the bars, let fall their 

 eggs, which drop upon the sieve. The males being introduced into the 

 apparatus at the same time, it generally happens that the fecundation 

 is effected naturally. This method of gathering has the advantage of 

 losing no portion of the eggs, while there is risk of this in holding 

 the female by a cord in rivers. 



The hatching-apparatus used by M. Millet varies a little with circum- 

 stances, but remains always simple, convenient, and economical. If the 

 development of the egg is to take place out of the water in which the 

 parents live, whether in an apartment or under a shed, a vessel of any 

 description is taken, having a capacity of thirty to thirty-five litres, 



may he useful to consult the Beport of a commission of the King of Holland, having for 

 title, " Handliedung tot de kunstmatige Veremenigouldigen van Yischeu, 1853 ;" seme 

 notes of M. de Camuont in the Norman Annual for 1850, and in the same collection an 

 Essay ujion the Multiplication of Fish in the department of La Manchi, by M. G. Sward 

 de Becunlieu, 1854, as well as some letters of the Marquis of Wibraye and the Count 

 of Pontgibard, 1854; in the Analytic Sketch of the Labors of the Academy of Rouen, 

 a note by M. Bergasse on Artificial Fecuudatiou applied to the Salmon, 1853 ; and some 

 Researches into the Natural History of the Salmon, by M. A. de Bignon, 1853; finally 

 various observations of MM. G^hin, Richard de Behagne in the Bulletin of the Agii- 

 cultural Society of Paris, vol. vi, pp. 461 and 469, 1851 ; of M. Noblet, ibidem, vol. vii, 

 p. 403, 1852, and M. Quenard, ibidem, vol. viii, p. 95, 1853. 



