1 68 How to obtain it. 



that may still remain, and also any containing "puny embryos." 

 The latter are now easily distinguished from the good eggs, and 

 may be detected at a glance even in a moderate light by the 

 difference in colour, being much lighter, and the eye spots being 

 very much smaller. The whole of the embryo is deficient both 

 in growth and stamina, and should such eggs succeed in hatching, 

 the fish will never live to grow up. 



Some day, in looking over the eggs, a curious streak will be 

 seen amongst them, and on touching it with a feather, it will 

 become violently active, and will probably run away, carrying an 

 egg, or rather an egg-shell, in front of it, very much as a man 

 holds an umbrella in a gale of wind. It is the tail of a young fish, 

 which is the first to emerge, and is already endued with the power 

 that it is in future destined to exercise should it live : viz., that 

 of a propeller. Soon others will follow, and if the temperature of 

 the water be raised slightly a general hatching will take place, and 

 all the eggs of that particular lot may be hatched off at once. 

 Some unfortunates emerge head first; and unless helped a little, 

 by means of a feather or a camel's-hair pencil, they will probably 

 suffocate and die. There are more of these cases amongst some 

 lots of eggs than others, notably amongst char, and the manager 

 has sometimes saved the lives of several hundreds of these, by 

 giving them a little attention in the way already alluded to. It is 

 easier to help the little fish to escape from their prisons than to 

 pick them out dead afterwards, with all the accompanying debris 

 of burst yolk sacs, etc. It must be done one way or the other. 



When the eggs are hatching or have hatched, a dipping tube 

 will be found a very useful instrument for removing little bits of 

 debris that are sure to occur in the hatching boxes. A plain 

 straight tube with a bulb is very useful for the purpose (see Fig. 

 17), or indeed even a plain straight one (Fig. 16) about three- 

 eights of an inch in diameter. Some persons prefer a bent tube 

 (as Fig. 1 8), and some use a tube that is provided with a cup and 

 indiarubber drum (as Fig. 19). This one is used by pressing the 

 drum slightly by means of the finger, before putting into the 

 water, and, on letting go, the object over which the tube is 

 placed is drawn into it, or is held at the mouth by atmospheric 

 pressure. The position of the hand (see 16) in the diagram will 



