78 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 



the eggs are placed under taps from which the water is 

 allowed to run slowly into them, so that the water in 

 the jars is gradually brought to the temperature of the 

 water in the hatchery. Any sudden change in the tem- 

 perature of the water containing the eggs would be 

 fatal. When hatching salmon alevins from which the 

 photographs were obtained, as shown in the earlier part 

 of this chapter, I well remember my groom suddenly 

 turning on the cold, town water supply, with the result 

 that out of some two hundred alevins only thirty or 

 forty were saved. After the water has been changed 

 and the eggs washed in the process, the eggs are laid 

 down either in baskets, or on glass grills to undergo the 

 first period of incubation. 



While incubation proceeds, the eggs are daily 

 examined, and all the dead eggs picked out with a glass 

 pipette. 



In seventeen to thirty days, according to the tem- 

 perature of the water, the eggs can be moved without 

 fear of injury. The trays are now placed in a shallow 

 basin in a good light, and every egg which does not 

 contain a fish is removed. The remaining eggs are next 

 carefully washed and measured, and are then ready for 

 the packer. 



Different forms of packing cases are in use ; those 

 used by the United Fisheries Company consist of wooden 

 cases, which have receptacles for ice at the ends and 

 in the lids. Inside the case are arranged numerous 

 shallow trays filled with moss. The moss is covered with 



