104 THE EGG-BOXES AT STORMONTFIELD. [CHAP. in. 



structed, will be a better guide to persons desiring information 

 than any written description. The engraving, with the double 

 pond, shows a design of my own, founded on the Stormontfield 

 suite ; it contains a separate pond for the detention, for a time, 

 of such large fish as may be taken with their spawn not fully 

 matured. Cottages for the superintendent of the ponds and 

 his assistants are also shown in the plan. 



The ponds at Stormontfield were originally designed with 

 a view to breed 300,000 fish per annum, but after a trial of 

 two years it was found, from a speciality in the natural history 

 of the salmon elsewhere alluded to, that only half that num- 

 ber of fish could be bred in each year. Hence the necessity 

 for the recently-constructed smolt-pond, which will now admit 

 of a hatching at Stormontfield of at least 350,000 eggs every 

 year. An additional reason for the construction of the new 

 pond was the fact of the old one being too small in proportion 

 to the breeding-boxes. Its dimensions were 223 feet by 112 

 feet at its longest and broadest parts. The new pond is nearly 

 an acre in extent, and is well adapted for the reception of the 

 young fish. 



The egg-boxes at Stormontfield, unlike those at Huningue, 

 are in the open air, and in consequence the eggs are exposed to 

 the natural temperature, and take, on an average of the seasons, 

 about 120 days to ripen into fish. For instance, the eggs laid 

 down in November 1863 had not come to life at the time of 

 niy visit to the ponds in the second week of March 1864. The 

 young fish, as soon as they are able to eat which is not for a 

 good few days, as the umbilical bag supplies all the food that 

 is required for a time by the newly-hatched animal are fed 

 with particles of boiled liver. On the occasion of my last visit 

 (December 22, 1864), Mr. Marshall threw a few crumbs into 

 the pond, which caused an immediate rising of the fry at that 

 spot in great numbers. It would, of course, have been a simple 

 plan to turn each year's fish out of the ponds into the river as 



