THE SALMON 205 



lend themselves more readily to artificial propagation than do 

 most others. First catch your salmon, male and female, and 

 the operation of gently pressing the ova out of the one and 

 impregnating it with the milt of the other is almost as 

 simple as gathering gooseberries. In both cases you must be 

 careful not to take what is unripe. All the contents of a 

 salmon's ovary never are ready for shedding at the same time ; 

 if you strip more than will come away with gentle pressure, 

 you injure the fish beyond recovery. Neither is there a very 

 intricate mystery in the subsequent management of the ova 

 and the resulting fry. Even temperature, scrupulous cleanli- 

 ness, an unfailing supply of pure water, and constant attention 

 to the removal of dead or unsound eggs, is nearly all that is 

 required to ensure an abundant hatch of alevins, which can be 

 reared and fed as easily as so many minnows. But to turn 

 fry, as soon as they have absorbed the umbilical bag, into the 

 river they are intended to replenish, is to expose them at their 

 most defenceless stage to the rapacity of innumerable foes. 

 Yet this is too commonly the practice. It cannot be impressed 

 too strongly upon owners of salmon-fishings that the labour 

 of collecting and hatching ova is labour wasted, unless the fry 

 are afterwards reared, protected, and fed in suitable ponds 

 until they are ready to go to the sea. This adds tenfold to 

 the expense and scale of the undertaking, and it becomes a 

 question, whereon opinions greatly differ, whether the money 

 and labour expended would not produce better results if 

 applied to the protection of fish on the natural spawning- 

 grounds. The considerations in favour of artificial propagation 

 are as follows : 



i. The assurance that all the ova are effectively fertilised. 

 The extent to which this is secured under natural conditions 

 has been the matter of some doubt, and is hardly capable of 

 demonstration. Personally, I am not disposed to distrust the 

 scheme of Nature, which provides so effectively and elaborately 

 for the fertilisation of all animal and vegetable ovaries. 



