FISH DIFFER IN SEASON. 3 



seals the same, and prevents the oxygen gas (the component 

 part of water) from being absorbed and passing to the em- 

 bryo, from which cause suffocation takes place, and the 

 egg is, in the common phrase, addled. This may seem 

 strange ; but the student of the laws of Nature well knows 

 that oxygen gas is as absolutely necessary to life as it is 

 the slow destroyer of all things. The destruction of 

 the eggs of the trout from the cause just assigned I have 

 proved to many friends, having shown them thousands in a 

 putrefied state on their own natural hills or breeding- 

 grounds; whilst, upon the principles I have to detail of my 

 methods of producing fish, not a single egg is lost. 



As I have not had the advantage of living for any length 

 of time in the neighbourhood of a salmonry, I can only give 

 my own views of the breeding and protection of that noble 

 fish ; but I believe I shall not be far from the truth when I 

 have shown what I have seen of the nature and bearing of 

 the Salmonidse. On the subject of trout and other fresh- 

 water fish I can speak more confidently, as the practice of 

 many years has given me such convincing results as are 

 not easily refuted. 



To do away with a deal of controversy as to fish being 

 only fit for food in certain seasons, I will point out to those 

 who may think it worth while to read these pages, that all 

 fish differ more or less in their seasons : for instance, when 

 fish are young, like other animals, they are more apt for 



