SPAWN-BOXES. 31 



egg is buried in the shingle, it is not at such a depth but 

 that light affects it, and that sensibly. The use of lids 

 to the spawn-boxes is to prevent water-fowl and herons 

 from peculation, and keep the prying curiosity of indivi- 

 duals from disturbing the eggs, which is pretty sure to end 

 in their becoming addled. The boxes being water-tight, 

 the size I recommend should be about four feet long to 

 from twelve to eighteen inches broad and nine inches deep. 

 You then charge them with shingle, or very coarse, well- 

 washed gravel, divested of all sand, to about six inches 

 deep, which will leave a flow of water over the shingle of 

 about two inches. The end of each box falling into the 

 succeeding one must have an aperture left for the water, 

 which, with the help of a small flange, is shot into the next, 

 on the principle of a weir, so that the end of each box 

 would be but eight inches deep ; and by these means box 

 after box will be filled with succession spawn, according 

 to the take of the fish as they ascend for spawning. 



The small fish are the first to spawn, the larger ascend 

 later ; but it is always advisable to obtain, if possible, a 

 young male and an old female, as the brood are always the 

 finest to which subject I shall soon allude more at length. 

 The last box of all in these artificial spawning-beds, or 

 hills, must differ from the spawning-boxes in being three 

 times as broad, to form an eddy, and deeper by three or 

 four inches ; and in this, which is the receiving-box for the 



