196 How to obtain it. 



looking over the stock, a number of white specks may be noticed 

 in one or other of the boxes, consisting of precipitated albumen. 

 When this is observed, look out for the cause of the mischief. 

 Some one or other of these water-creatures has obtained admission, 

 and the sooner he is ejected the better. He is all right enough 

 in his proper place, but that is not amongst " alevin " trout. He 

 may turn out to be a caddis worm, and if so, will probably be 

 found lurking in a corner. He has most likely come in when 

 much smaller, and then grown bigger. He may well do that 

 where he is, for he is certainly in a water of plenty. In order to 

 ascertain how he goes about his work, just place him in a glass 

 jar containing only water, for twelve or thirteen hours, .and then 

 introduce an alevin trout. He will soon make up to it, and with 

 one squeeze of his powerful claws, or nippers, will burst the 

 umbilical sac, and devour the contents. This accounts for little 

 bits of precipitated albumen occurring in the box. 



A few alevins will die, but they should be very few, and these 

 will drop out of the "pack" and lie about lower down in the box, 

 where they will linger for awhile and then expire, first changing 

 to a lighter colour, and becoming rigid. It is not at all unnatural 

 that this should be so ; they are probably weakly fish that never 

 would have lived to grow up, and which always occur in small 

 numbers. Then there will be found a collection of fish which 

 will not die at once, but which still appear very helpless, and 

 usually gravitate to the lower end of the box near the screen. On 

 examination it is easy to see that they are cripples, and very 

 curious-looking individuals they are, most of them suffering from 

 curved spines. This weakness amongst young fish is well-known, 

 and assumes a great variety of forms. Some have their backs 

 bent so as to look sickle shaped, whilst others are twisted up 

 very much after the manner of a cork-screw. In some cases the 

 body is bent at almost a right angle, and in others the tail or the 

 head is deformed. These are soon devoured when their lot is 

 cast in a stream, but here they lie, if allowed to do so, until the 

 umbilical sac is absorbed, when they die. There are also some 

 curious examples of a different nature, and these are seen to be 

 possessed of two heads and two bodies with a tail common to 

 both. Others, again, have a head and half a body extra, the 



