152 How to obtain it. 



salt bath, is very useful, and may be worked in the stream. Put 

 the ripe spawners or females in one net, and the males or milters 

 into another so that they can be got at at once without any 

 uncertainty. Some towels and a few spawning dishes should be 

 at hand. Milk bowls will be found to answer the purpose very 

 well. When the spawning ground is some distance from home a 

 few enamelled metal basins are very convenient, being light and 

 easily carried, and a can will be required for taking home the ova. 

 Something in the shape of an ordinary milk can with a lid will be 

 found useful for this purpose. A bedroom water jug is an article 

 I have often used, and seems to be about as good as anything- 

 Whatever is used, take care that it is perfectly clean. 



For collecting salmon and other ova, when large quantities 

 are likely to be taken, I use carboys, and find them very con- 

 venient. They should be filled with water, and the eggs poured 

 in from a jug or other vessel. The specific gravity of the eggs 

 being rather greater than that of water they go at once to the 

 bottom, displacing some water in the process. When about two- 

 thirds full of ova a little of it should be poured off, and the bottle 

 sent forward to the hatchery with as little delay as practicable. 

 On arrival there the eggs may be poured out into bowls, which 

 should be held immediately under the nozzle of the carboy during 

 the operation. Should it be desired to extract them without any 

 jar or concussion it is quite easily done as follows : Place a bung 

 or stopper of any kind in the neck of the carboy for a moment, 

 and invert it over a tank with the neck submerged, withdraw 

 the stopper and the eggs will quietly gravitate to the bottom of 

 the tank. 



When the fish have been duly sorted and are at hand in their 

 various receptacles the work is easy enough. Some operators 

 kneel down, and for beginners this is perhaps the best plan, 

 though it is never done at the Solway Fishery. Some fish are 

 almost sure to slip through the fingers of a novice at first, and 

 they are not likely to be so 'much injured as they would be by a 

 fall from the hands of a person standing. Even an old hand will 

 let a fish slip occasionally, but the occurrence is a rare one, and 

 the chances are that he so balances it, or dexterously controls its 

 movements whilst falling as to send it into a tank or tub of water, 



