CHAPTER III. 



TRANSPORTATION OF THE EGGS. 



COLLECTING and transporting fish eggs is at 

 present, and has been for centuries past, a dis- 

 tinct, as well as an important branch of commerce 

 in China. 



This branch of industry was specially pro- 

 tected, and on an extensive scale, by the ancient 

 Roman Government. Stocking rivers and lakes 

 with a great variety of fishes was regarded as a 

 measure of public utility. 



The practicability of transporting the fecun- 

 dated eggs of fishes to great distances has been 

 amply proven by experience. 



It is true that there are some kinds of fish 

 whose eggs hatch in so brief a period of time 

 that they cannot be kept many days in an unfa- 

 vorable condition, or one in which the process of 

 incubation would be arrested. The eggs of the 

 pike, for example, hatch in ten to twenty days; 

 but the eggs of all the different species of salmon 

 require such a comparatively great length of time 



